The communitarian challenge to liberalism

Over the past two decades, a debate has raged within political theory between liberals, with their emphasis on the protection of individual rights, and their communitarian challengers, who stress the overriding importance of community values and interests. The central issues of this debate include the extent of individuals' obligations toward their communities, the role of communities in shaping the values of their members, and the role of government in promoting community values and securing individual rights. The thirteen essays in this volume - written by prominent philosophers and political and legal theorists - approach this debate from a variety of perspectives. Some discuss disagreements between liberals and communitarians over the nature of moral agency and the proper functions of government. Some examine alternative ways of conceiving liberalism or community, or challenge widely held beliefs about the harmful effects of capitalism on community, or about the value of traditional practices as guides to judicial reasoning. Other essays seek to determine whether it makes sense to think of societies as having and pursuing a common good, or whether culturally diverse societies can ever hope to achieve social unity. Still others examine the role of states in promoting their citizens' civic education and their participation in the voluntary associations and institutions of civil society.

Taken together, these essays offer valuable insights concerning the ways in which government can protect individual rights even while encouraging the flourishing of valuable forms of community.