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14
TakingCommunitySeriously?
thestatusofrightsandduties,therelationshipofnegativeandpositive
freedom,theproblemoftheidentityoftheself,thenatureofthegood
lifeandcommongood,andthesignificanceofthesocialvirtuesforthe
continuityoftheliberalstate.Similarconcernsdrawdiversepeople
underonelabel.Whoarethesepeople?Typically,thepoliticalanalysts
includeherethenamesofAlasdairMacIntyre,CharlesTaylor,MichaelJ.
Sandel,MichaelWalzer,RobertN.Bellah,WilliamSullivan,aswellas
thegroupassociatedwithAmitaiEtzioni’sCommunitarianNetworkand
itsquarterly(publishedforanumberofyearstill2004)TheResponsive
Community:RightsandResponsibilities.Quiterecently,therehavebeensome
developmentsofcommunitarianforumsinafewEuropeancountries,e.g.
GreatBritain,Spain,Germany,andFinland.However,eveniftheylocate
themselvesintheEuropeantraditionsofconcernwithcommunity,their
comingtoexistencewasstimulatedbythecommunitariandevelopments
intheAnglo-Saxon,particularlyAmerican,environment.2Whilethe
philosophicalanalystsofcommunitarianismusuallysticktothefirstfour
namesonly,thesociologicalonesratherconcentrateontheactivitiesof
AmitaiEtzioni’sCommunitarianNetwork,3thoughthesolemostactive
participantoftheinitiativehasalwaysbeenitsfounder,whohasbeen
extremelyprolificontheinternet.4
AsthetermHcommunitarian”canbeunderstoodquitebroadly,itis
sometimesusedtocovertheideasasdiverseasthosediscussedbyKarl
Marxandtheonesanalyzedbytheso-calledpostmodernists.Theterm
itself,accordingtoEtzioni,wasfirstcreatedin1841bythefounderofthe
UniversalCommunitarianAssociation.5However,aswecanfurtherlearn
fromtheHIntroduction”toTheEssentialCommunitarianReader,themodern
meaningoftheword(Hof,pertainingto,orcharacteristicofacommunity”)
2Moreonthissubjectcanbefoundonthecommunitarianwebsiteat
http://www.communitariannetwork.org/orhttp://icps.gwu.edu.
3Seeeg.RobertBoothFowler,TheDancewithCommunity:TheContemporaryDebate
inAmericanPoliticalThought,Lawrence:UniversityPressofKansas,1991;Stephen
Holmes,TheAnatomyofAntiliberalism,Cambridge,MA:HarvardUniversityPress,
1993/1996;WillKymlicka,ContemporaryPoliticalPhilosophy.AnIntroduction,Oxford:
ClarendonPress,1990;StephenMulhallandAdamSwift,LiberalsandCommunitarians,
Oxford:Blackwell,1992.
4LookatAmitaiEtzioni’sblogatthefollowingwebsiteaddress:http://blog.
amitaietzioni.org/.
5AmitaiEtzioni,HIntroduction,”in:AmitaiEtzioni(ed.),TheEssentialCommu-
nitarianReader,Lanham,MD:Rowman&Littlefield,1998,p.ix.