Introduction

This chapter highlights the continued significance of communitarianism within the New Labour project and argues that there has been consistency within the Labour Party’s social and public policy agendas in its emphasis on social and moral behaviour. Many recent policy developments emerge around an axis of rights and responsibilities, with a heightened emphasis on the restoration of moral responsibility and social pressure to behave in ‘correct’ and ‘decent’ ways. It is argued in this chapter that the sense of community and the spirit of communitarianism proposed by Etzioni are alive and well within the policy worlds of housing and regeneration, social security, criminal justice and education. Etzioni’s world view of the ‘common sense’ behaviour of individuals within localised and morally strong communities not only resonates with Labour’s policy intentions but also suggests a British future with a stronger communitarian focus and an unapologetic acceptance of the need to emphasise responsibilities over rights. The chapter aims to show the prevalence of such communitarian values and to reveal how a range of public and social policies in Br itain continues to echo the spir it of American communitarianism.

American communitarianism

Communitarianism is a social and political movement originating in 1990s America but which has attracted attention and support in the UK. Described as a ‘flexi-philosophy’ (Milne, 1994), the idea of communitarianism can be found to appeal to certain strands of the political left and the political right, allowing supporters to defend a variety of political territories by propounding the importance of community. All communitarians start from the same point: namely, that social values and social structures have lost their true meaning and have misled society in terms of accepted moral standards and acceptable moral values. Modern American society reflects, in both moral and civic spheres, a decline which needs to be arrested (Etzioni, 1993, 1997b). Such decline takes many forms: the rise in crime and disorder; the rise in disrespect towards others and towards the political system; the decline in family values; and poor educational achievement and low aspirations (Etzioni, 1993, 1997b), but all point to the same outcome – that society will decline further unless such problems are addressed. Communitarianism is therefore concerned with a moral agenda set within an intrinsically social context; community is unapologetically concerned with the betterment of society and all those within it.