Autonomy and Order

The Communitarian Movement asserts that America and other Western societies overemphasize individual rights and underemphasize collective responsibilities. In the debate between the importance of individual and community rights The New Golden Rule by Amitai Etzioni one of the movement's founders has emerged at the theoretical cutting edge of Commitarianism's challenge. This anthology of original essays by prominent political scientists philosophers and sociologists systematically advances our understanding of the movement's agenda. Using The New Golden Rule as the guidepost for organizing 'conversations' the essays are structured around key questions that spring from Communitarian tenets. Although Amitai Etzioni's book provides the collection's framework contributors have criticized modified or augmented his positions as they saw fit.