The Sociology Book

114

F

rom the end of World War

II to the early 1970s, the

US 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 crumble.

The response to this cultural

and moral crisis, and to the

concurrent rise of the ideology

of individualism and liberal

economic policy—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 not merely focus on their

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

of its members and the principles

embodied in its communities

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

Amitai Etzioni Amitai Etzioni was born in

Germany in 1929 and by the age

of seven was living in Palestine

with his family. In 1946 he left

education to join the Palmach

and fight for the creation of Israel.

Some five years later he was a

student in an institution where

the Jewish existential philosopher

Martin Buber had worked. Buber’s

focus on the “I and Thou”

relationship resonates throughout

Etzioni’s approach toward

communitarian living.

In 1951 Etzioni enrolled in the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem,

where he gained BA and MA

degrees; in 1958 he obtained

his PhD in sociology from

the University of California,

Berkeley. His first post was at

New York’s Columbia University

where he served for 20 years. In

1980 he became a professor at

George Washington University,

where he serves as the

director of the Institute for

Communitarian Policy Studies.

Key works

1993 The Spirit of Community:

The Reinvention of American

Society

AMITAI ETZIONI

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Communitarianism

KEY DATES

1887 Gemeinschaft und

Gesellschaft (Community and

Society) by Ferdinand Tönnies

extols the value of community.

1947 German thinker Martin

Buber’s Paths to Utopia

anticipates the modern

communitarianism movement.

1993 The Communitarian

Network, a nonpartisan,

transnational, and nonprofit

coalition is founded.

1999 US scholar and

republican communitarian

Stephen Goldsmith joins

former president George

W. Bush’s advisory team

for social policy.

2005 British sociologist Colin

Gray publishes an article

entitled “Sandcastles of

Theory,” arguing that Etzioni’s

work is overly utopian.

A responsive community is

one whose moral standards

reflect the basic human

needs of all its members.

Amitai Etzioni