Advantages And Disadvantages Of Communitarianism

Communitarianism is an ideology that highlights the responsibility that the individual has to their community. Within this ideology there can be two views that may be in conflict with one another; we have duties to fellow citizens and we have duties to every other human being in need. How is it possible to balance the two? The ideology of Solidarity is that communitarians believe members of a community should adopt the communities’ values and promote the communities interest. Society is therefore viewed as a cooperative association for mutual benefit. All members contribute and benefit from society therefore we may impose burdens on members that we may not impose on non-members. Consequently we are also not required to benefit non-members

He states that Mutual Aid extends across political frontiers, therefore can only arise in world without borders (Reference). He argues that assistance should only be given if needed urgently and the costs are low to our citizens (Reference). The Good Samaritan principle only tells us how to treat strangers but it does not state who we should allow into our community. He argues that our community tells us what we owe to others, however, the real issue is who we should admit to our community and turn into fellow citizens (reference). Walzer poses the question; to how many people do we distribute membership and to what types of people (1983:34), he states that this question is often asked in regards to public policy when admitting or excluding strangers (1983:34). Walzer then uses the example of neighbourhoods, families and clubs to shape his argument on admissions policy and to distinguish the political community from other communities. If the political community was like the neighbourhood there would be no restrictions on entry, this would mean people would not build up strong feelings of citizenship or feel any sense of belonging. The political community is free to restrict entry but not exit, because to deny exit is a form of coercion and may mean that citizens feel that there is no community worth defending (1983:38), however he states that not just any standard of admission is acceptable. These