Overemphasizing Civic Responsibility Undermines Civil Rights (From America's Victims: Opposing Viewpoints, P 69-75, 1996, David Bender, Bruno Leone, et al, eds. -- See NCJ-165502)

• NCJ Number: 165510
• Author(s): S Walker
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 7 pages
• Sale Source: Greenhaven Press
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Opposing Viewpoints Series

Annotation

Although the communitarian movement has called for a moratorium on the proliferation of new rights and for a renewed emphasis on civic responsibility, the author contends that many of the communitarian prescriptions for social problems are the same as those advocated by traditional civil libertarians whom communitarians criticize.

Abstract

Communitarians undervalue the contributions of the civil rights movement to American society, yet they seek to restore a "moral voice" to political dialogue and express concern for the social dimensions of human existence. These social dimensions include strengthening the family, restoring moral education to the public school curriculum, and rebuilding communities. Communitarians are particularly disturbed about the degeneration of American politics, the enormous power of special interest groups, and the increasing cynicism and apathy of the electorate. Despite their rhetoric, communitarians do not offer a program likely to build a stronger sense of community in the United States. Many of their proposals are without real substance, they consistently refuse to challenge established economic orthodoxy, some of their ideas extend coercive government intervention in private lives, and they consistently fail to appreciate the positive contributions of the civil rights movement. In contrast to the views of communitarians, the uncompromising pursuit of rights is central to the process of public debate in a democratic society.