Don't have time to study all the government documents and academic papers at this site? Unfamiliar with the language and looking for an easy introduction to this topic? We wrote this book just for you: 2020: Our Common Destiny.
A few new 2009 quotes
"Former U.S. president Bill Clinton put out a clarion call for people to engage in “communitarianism”, doing one’s part for those on the disadvantaged side of the inequality that exists around the world." Clinton in Montreal calls for ‘Communitarianism’ October 15, 2009, By Joel Goldenberg, The Suburban News,
http://www.thesuburbannews.ca/content/en/2513
"HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, May 29, 2009 (UPI) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton told crowds in two eastern Canadian provinces there had to be more public involvement in solving the world's problems./ Clinton spoke first on Thursday in St. John's, the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador, and coined his own term -- communitarianism -- for personal involvement, the city's Telegram newspaper reported." Bill Clinton urges 'communitarianism'http://www.aegis.com/news/upi/2009/UP090521.html
"Dr. Emanuel argues that to make such decisions, the focus cannot be only on the worth of the individual. He proposes adding the communitarian perspective to ensure that medical resources will be allocated in a way that keeps society going:" Obama's Health Rationer-in-Chief White House health-care adviser Ezekiel Emanuel blames the Hippocratic Oath for the 'overuse' of medical care, by Betsy McCaughey, Wall Street Journal August 27, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203706604574374463280098676.html
"Because America has now – Mostly because starting in ‘98, we had heavy majority support for not only the performance of the administration, but basically for the philosophy of – it wasn’t necessarily more left, it was more communitarian, the idea that we had to go forward together. That we couldn’t stand this level of inequality, we couldn’t stand this level of social division." Bill Clinton meeting transcript, posted at Think Progress By Amanda Terkel on Jun 16th, 2009 at 2:33 pm http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/16/clinton-health-care-meeting/
"The communitarian population registry, begun in the summer last year, is conducted in Paterson, Perth Amboy, Passaic, Newark, Union City, Jersey City, West New York, North Bergen and Camden, the ten cities with highest number of Dominicans in the state." N.J. city tops Dominican population in the U.S., census saysDominican Today Jan 30, 2009
President Barack Obama with his communitarian guru, Dr. Amitai Etzioni
Obama's communitarianism was not an "issue" in his 2008 presidential bid.
Besides the fact that McCain and Palin are also both communitarians,
communitarian thinkers know how Americans would vote on his real change:
Individual rights versus community rights is the most ignored topic of the 21st century, and possibly the most important debate in American history. Maybe it's time we all joined in.
Is personal freedom and justice for all outdated?
Many thanks to the 3,737 visitors who've answered this poll!
"The world needs a new global architecture, additional layers of governance, to deal with issues that neither nations nor traditional forms of intergovernmental organizations can cope with." ("Europe, A Beautiful Idea" by Amitai Etzioni, September 2004 conference at the Hague)
Communitarianism is the Rule of Law in all communist countries (with China and Singapore leading the way) and has the most open opposition from the formerly communist nations. While the ACL is a US Constitutional based opposition research institute, our work necessarily includes how the new communitarian system is being implemented around the world. We encourage everyone opposed to a supra (or plural) national system to show support for Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who, after the Irish voted YES on Lisbon, remains one of the few outspoken critics left in the European arena. President Klaus explains the shifty communitarian nature of the EU in numerous writings.
"When Klaus ran into me during the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1997, he grabbed my lapel, waved his index finger in my face, and announced in a booming voice, “You are crippling my republic! You are undermining what we are trying to do! You do not understand that egoism and the profit motive are the best part of human nature. You work for those who want to return my country to communism!” " Amitai Etzioni Notes, Bad News Vaclav Klaus, January 6, 2009
"International Studies Associating 50th Annual Convention, February 15-18, 2009, New York City, New York, “Exploring Possibilities and Problems in Comprehensive Global Integration”
Sunday, February 15, 2:15pm, Roundtable Chair: Luis Cabrera, University of Birmingham, Roundtable Participants: Brooke Ackerly, Vanderbilt University, Christine Keating, Ohio State University, Amitai Etzioni, George Washington University" Communitarian Network Confrences, http://www.gwu.edu/~ccps/conferences.html
"The crisis is an opportunity to sweep away the rotten postwar settlement of British politics. Labour is moribund. But David Cameron has a chance to develop a "red Tory" communitarianism, socially conservative but sceptical of neoliberal economics." Rise of the Red Tories, by Phillip Blond, 28th February 2009 — Issue 155, Prospect Magazinehttp://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2009/02/riseoftheredtories/
"'Communism has been replaced by the threat of an ambitious environmentalism,' Klaus wrote in response to questions from the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce." http://www.jewcy.com/tags/vaclav_klaus
"One of Klaus's nastiest critics is "communitarianism" guru (and former terrorist) Amitai Etzioni, a professor at George Washington University, who went after the Czech President in a December 29 piece on the Huffington Post entitled "Bad News Vaclav Klaus." Etzioni, an ardent socialist and equally ardent advocate of world government, bashes Klaus as an egotistical bully, contrasting him unfavorably with his predecessor, Vaclav Havel, the socialist playwright who has ever been the darling of the internationalist set. Unlike Klaus, Mr. Havel has been a firm supporter of EU centralization and integration, has an unblemished Green pedigree, and is a regular attendee at one-world confabs with Henry Kissinger, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Prof. Etzioni's fellow members of the Council on Foreign Relations." Czech Pres. Vaclav Klaus Enrages Eurocrats, Written by William F. Jasper, Tuesday, 30 December 2008, The New Americanhttp://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/europe-mainmenu-35/635
EU Communitarian Law is the "model" for national adaptation to global norms, it has been a primary source for most of our communitarian law research. Today references to the communitarian system are all over the place; here' a PhD's analysis of Bolivia's new constitution:
"The communitarian nature of the new constitution is based on the recognition of the cultural institutions that give form to the behaviours not only of rural communities, but also urban ones. We speak about the ayllus, the tentas, the capitanias, the organising structures that give meaning to migration, migrant settlements, holidays, festivals, challas, rituals and ceremonies, where collective symbolism lies. An initial conclusion could be the following: the new constitution represents a transition from the unitary and social nature of the state to a plural-national and communitarian one.
"It is also a constitutional transition, as developments in liberal rights, obligations and guarantees are combined with constitutionalised indigenous demands, and with legal and political forms that give a constitutional framework to the process of nationalisation and recovery of natural resources. In other words, it does not cease to be a liberal constitution, albeit in a pluralist version, incorporating four generations of rights: individual rights, social rights, collective rights and environmental rights. It is also an indigenous and popular constitution in that it incorporates the indigenous nations’ and peoples’ own institutionality, their own structures and practices. In the same way, it is a constitution that recognises the fundamental role of the public realm as an interventionist, welfare and industrialising state." Bolivia's New Political Constitution of the State, by Raul Prada, posted on the Democratic Underground-Latin America.
Addressing Social Class and Classism in Vocational Theory and Practice, Extending the Emancipatory Communitarian Approach, by William Ming Liu, University of Iowa, William-liu@uiowa.edu and Saba Rasheed Ali, University of Iowa: "The emancipatory communitarian approach to vocational development is congruent with previous calls to counseling psychologists to be oriented to social justice in their research and practice. However, even in the current emancipatory communitarian approach, an implicit upward mobility bias favors some vocations. To help understand how to better apply the emancipatory communitarian approach, a social class and classism framework is incorporated to explore how upward mobility bias distorts and ignores negative aspects of higher status and higher prestige jobs and does not recognize potential positive aspects of lower status and working-class jobs." The Counseling Psychologist, Vol. 33, No. 2, 189-196 (2005) DOI: 10.1177/0011000004272269
Our logo is an original painting called Die Neue Mitte Ist Eine Neue Mythe, donated in December 2005 by the Belgian artist, Jan Theuninck. Vielen Dank, Jan!
We are extremely grateful to Jess Blank of the The Web Union, it was her generosity which allowed this website to remain a free public resource for 5 years. Today the ACL website continues as a free resource because of the generosity of a Canadian, Paul Barnes. The ACL receives no grant funding (and the founders do not live on welfare, food stamps or SSI either). We exist mainly on frugal living, sheer willpower, odd jobs and occassional gifts from our readers.
There are several other significant contributors to the ACL who are not in the public eye; while we don't name them, they are extremely important to keeping ACL research free and online. It takes more than two little "nobodies" to present such a massive body of work and this site would not exist without the support and encouragment from so many. To our generous friends in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, England, Canada and Norway, thank you all!
Please feel free to add your financial contribution to continued ACL research!
To all our contributors, readers, supporters, well-wishers and fans around the world: thank you for visiting, donating, joining, sharing your thoughts, and spreading the word. You make this difficult project worthwhile. To every hater and flamer who ever belittled us or sent a nasty note: thank you as well, because each one is an affirmation.
