Liberals versus communitarians

There are many writers and critics who regard what they call ‘individualist-liberalism’ as the root of many of the evils of the modern world; and the emphasis of their attack is on the individualist half of the term. Those who take this line nowadays often call themselves ‘communitarians’. I would prefer to call them collectivists, as that brings out their dangerous tendency to regard the group as more important than the individuals of whom it is composed. But in what follows I shall concede on labels and most often refer to them as communitarians.

There are a number of slogans characteristic of communitarian rhetoric. The most frequent of them is that, ‘Man is a political (or sometimes social) animal.’ The individualist-liberal is then accused of an ‘atomistic’ view of society. Another slogan is that more emphasis should be put on duties instead of rights. Here there would be no difference between Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher. In a lower key there is a preference for teamwork as opposed to individual responsibility (apparent even in the new arrangements for monetary policy).

But the emphasis of the attack is on modern market capitalism, The historian of political thought, C. B. MacPherson, called this ‘possessive individualism’, an expression which has caught on with many who have not read a single word of his work. The more lowbrow version is a contempt for the ‘pursuit of the bottom line’ which is said to characterise our age.