Last Updated on September 30, 2025 by Karl Thompson
From the end of World War II to the early 1970s the USA experienced rapid economic growth, which resulted in increasing prosperity and upward social mobility for the vast majority of its citizens. The social and political landscape of the country changed too, with the Civil Rights movement, organized opposition to the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and feminism becoming prominent.
In 1973, however, the oil crisis and stock market crash sent the US economy into sudden decline and – according to sociologist Amitai Etzioni – the basis of traditional values on which US culture was founded began to corrode. The response to this cultural and moral crisis, and the disillusionment of liberal individualism and ideology of the free market – where the free market is allowed to operate with minimal government intervention – was the emergence of the social philosophy of communitarianism.
In Etzioni’s words, its aims were to “…restore civic virtues, for people to live up to their responsibilities and entitlements, to shore up the moral foundations of society.”
The guiding principle of his form of communitarianism is that society should articulate what is good; through the shared consensus embodied in its basic principles and institutions. Furthermore, for Etzioni, it was not enough for sociologists to think about and contemplate social life; rather, they should be actively involved in trying to change society for the better. By the early 1990s, a growing number of US social thinkers – including sociologists – had become influenced by communitarian ideals.
Responsibilities and Rights
The roots of Etzioni’s ideas lie in the work of earlier theorists, such as German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies, who had distinguished between two types of social ties, Gemeinschaft (community) and Gesellschaft (association). The first referred to personal relationships and face-to-face interactions that created communal society; the second to ties created by rational self-interest, bureaucracies, and formal beliefs.
Tönnies held that the defining principles of Gesellschaft in modern society represented a backwards step in the development of human relations compared to the high levels of solidarity found in traditional forms of communal living – Gemeinschaft. Although Etzioni developed the communitarian thinking of Tönnies, he believed that Tönnies overemphasized the communal at the expense of the individual.
Tönnies’ contemporary Émile Durkheim, on the other hand, feared that modernity might threaten social solidarity, for him, individuals had to be social beings whose ambitions and needs coincided with the group.
Etzioni saw the Gemeinschaft community as one where members can often be oppressed; they can also hinder individual growth and development. His philosophy of communitarianism was designed to achieve the optimum balance of freedom between the individual and community, between rights and responsibilities.
Core Values of Communitarianism
Etzioni’s communitarianism is founded on various core social values:
- Strong individual rights presume strong social responsibilities.
- Schools should provide essential moral education without indoctrinating young people.
- Families are the most invaluable form of community and need to be remodelled on more egalitarian lines.
Society should articulate what is good.
As Etzioni stated:
“A responsive community is one whose moral standards reflect the basic human needs of all its members.”
What is a Community?
For Etzioni, community “entails a web of social relations that encompasses shared meanings and above all shared values.” The values of a community cannot be imposed by an outside group or internal minority, but must be “generated by the members of a community in a dialogue that is open to all and fully responsive to the membership.”
Etzioni’s concept is inherently democratic, and “seeks to encompass rather than exclude, and to be more encompassing.”
Communities rather than individuals are, says Etzioni, the elemental building blocks of society, and society comprises multiple, overlapping communities. People are therefore characteristically members of many different intersecting communities.
The Communal Society
Rather than just operating at the intellectual level, Etzioni proposes four aspects of how a communitarian society should be implemented and organized. He does this by identifying the core aspects of communitarian society and the functions each one plays in relation to the wider social whole.
The first aspect is what Etzioni calls the “moral voice” – the name given to the shared set of collectively assembled norms and values on which the interpersonal and moral conduct that binds community members is based. No society can thrive without a solid moral order, especially if reliance on state intervention in public matters is to be kept to a minimum.
By identifying and establishing a moral voice, it is no longer necessary to rely on either individual conscience or law enforcement agencies to regulate the conduct of community members. When communities value certain behaviours – such as avoiding alcohol abuse and not speeding – anti-social behaviours are prevented, and tend to be spread, effectively.
The second is the “communitarian family”. Bringing up children in a family not only obligates the parents to the child but the family to the community too. When children are raised poorly, the consequences must usually be faced not just by the family but by the entire community. It is for this reason, according to Etzioni, that the procreation, and bringing up, of children should be considered a communitarian act.
Etzioni argues that parents have a moral responsibility to the community to raise their children to the best of their ability, and the communities have an obligation to help them in this endeavour. Communities should support and encourage, rather than penalize, parents who take extra leave from work in order to spend time with their children.
As he emphasised:
“Education, particularly character formation, is the essential family task.”
Etzioni claimed that two-parent families are far better equipped to undertake the job of rearing children than one-parent families, because it is a “labour intensive, demanding task.”
Schools and Service
Etzioni’s third principle sets out the functions of the “communitarian school”. Schools should do far more than transmitting knowledge to pupils. They should build upon the task of character formation initiated by parents to help lay the foundations for a stable sense of self, of purposefulness, and the ability to control impulses and defer immediate gratification.
In particular, the virtues of discipline, self-discipline, and internalization – the integration of the values of others into one’s own sense of self – play a major role in the child’s psychological development and wellbeing.
As part of its emphasis on self-discipline, Etzioni argues all school leavers should undertake a mandatory year of national service. Doing so, he claims, would provide “a strong antidote to ego-centred, self-indulgent lifestyles.”
He even noted that:
“School leavers should enrol for military service (as in these barracks in Germany in 2011), because it instils self-discipline and builds character and community spirit.”
And he also warned:
“The imbalance between rights and responsibilities has existed for a long time.”
Criticisms
Etzioni’s communitarianism is a response to a range of real concerns about the deterioration of private and public morality and shared values, the decline of the family, high crime rates, and increasing political apathy across US society.
His vision of a more democratic, just, and egalitarian society is commended by scholars and commentators from a wide range of ideological positions.
However, Etzioni’s work has also drawn criticisms. For example, some supporters of feminism object strongly to communitarianism as an attempt to slow down women’s economic liberation. They argue that a woman with a full-time job now spends more quality time with her children than the average homemaker did 30 years ago.
Beatrix Campbell has accused communitarians of a “nostalgic crusade”, pointing out that the kind of mother they evoke did not exist.
US sociologist and political theorist Richard Sennett claims Etzioni’s work fails to address the nature of political and economic power other than in the vaguest of terms, and does not provide a convincing account of what might motivate individuals to commit to communitarian principles and values.
If, as Etzioni claims, US culture is self-obsessed and overly individualistic, then he fails to provide an answer as to why anyone would choose to accept responsibility to a community that would make demands of them and potentially impinge upon their individual rights.
Influence and Legacy
In spite of criticisms, many of the ideas at the heart of Etzioni’s communitarianism have influenced governments.
In his book The Third Way, British sociologist Anthony Giddens sees Etzioni’s work as central to the framework of the political philosophy known as the Third Way, developed by former British prime minister Tony Blair.
Etzioni’s work appealed to the UK’s New Labour government in two distinct ways: first, it provided middle ground between the political Left, with its overemphasis on the role to be played by the State, and the political Right, with its exaggerated support of the free market and championing of the individual; second, it presented the notion of citizenship as something that has to be earned through the fulfilment of shared expectations and obligations.
As Etzioni put it:
“Today there is increasing interest among youngsters… in finding careers… [in which] you can combine ‘making it’ with something meaningful.”
📝 Revision Summary: Amitai Etzioni and Communitarianism
Core Ideas
- Communitarianism developed as a response to the decline of traditional values in the USA after the 1970s.
- Etzioni argued that individual rights must be balanced with social responsibilities.
- Society should articulate and reinforce shared moral values.
- Communities, not individuals, are the basic building blocks of society.
- Key institutions:
- Family – raising children is a communitarian act; two-parent families best suited.
- Schools – should provide character formation as well as knowledge.
- Community service – national/military service instils discipline and social responsibility.
Quotes
- “A responsive community is one whose moral standards reflect the basic human needs of all its members.”
- “Moral anarchy, not the excesses of community, is the danger we currently face.”
- “Education, particularly character formation, is the essential family task.”
Criticisms
- Feminists argue it restricts women’s economic independence.
- Beatrix Campbell – communitarianism is a “nostalgic crusade.”
- Richard Sennett – fails to address power and why people would sacrifice rights for responsibility.
Influence
- Influenced Anthony Giddens’ Third Way and UK New Labour under Tony Blair.
- Offered a “middle ground” between the state-heavy Left and free-market Right.
Signposting
Etzioni is a major social theorist, while not of direct relevant to A level sociology this might be of interest to keen beans.