Community

Abstract

This chapter clarifies the concept of community, one of the primary values in Karl Marx’s communism, by comparing it with that of modern communitarianism, which also centered on community. Communitarianism has emerged as a substitute notion for communism through debate with liberalism. Its advocates comprise Alasdair MacIntyre, Michael Sandel, Charles Taylor, and Michael Walzer. I compare communism with communitarianism in terms of nine elements: moralism, perfectionism, liberalism, individualism, conservatism, localism, particularism, democracy, and radicalism. Communitarianism attempts to criticize liberalism from its outside, whereas communism overcomes it from its inside. Communitarians attempt to maintain a traditional community in a capitalist society, whereas communists attempt to transcend capitalism and liberalism from within and build a new society founded on the association. The liberal-communitarian debate is only a reproduction of the problem that Marx addressed and answered. Communitarian criticism of Marxism eventually contributed to illuminating the significance of the communist community.