Communitarianism as the social and legal theory behind the German Constitution

Abstract

Appeals to community in literature, politics, and science have recently grown stronger in Germany. Communities care for their members and support each other. Citizens are active in their communities and fight against racism and hatred. Community life promises integration, recognition, and emotional support. For Germans, such ideas are not taken for granted but rather, extraordinarily enough, have become taboo since World War II despite intensive community efforts during reconstruction. In any case, the theory of communitarianism has stood long in the shadow of other political theories, owing in part to the misuses that occurred in the name of the National Socialistic concepts of leader, race, people, and community. In more recent times, however, there has been a noticeable change of attitude on the part of various social groups, owing to the perception that the increasing globalization, commercialization and virtualization of all aspects of life must be effectively counterbalanced. Certainly, collective changes of attitude must be subject to discussion before they can be analyzed and conceptually developed. In the last twenty years, the communitarian movement in the United States has begun this process.1 Its chief supporters include Alasdair MacIntyre,2 Michael Sandel,3 Michael Walzer,4