Abstract
This paper discsses the communitarian vision of the way that a society should be run and describes the philosophy and beliefs of communitarianism. The paper then looks at Lenin's communitarianism and how it related to his Marxist beliefs. The paper also looks at symbolic interactionism as a theory of the individual and relates this to Lenin's views of communitarianism.

From the Paper
"Symbolic interactionism is a theory of the individual while functionalism is a theory of structure. Efforts have been made to create some middle theory that brings the two together. Giddens is one who has proposed such a theory, one he calls Duality of Structure and which involves both structure and individual agency. When we ask about the structure of social practices, we are seeking to explain how structures are constituted through actions and how actions are constituted structurally at the same time. Giddens suggests that the global dimension of thought and action so prominent in the modern world capitalist system ought to shape theoretical discourse in profound ways.
"He notes the dimensions of modernity as we enter the period of post-modernity, and he finds that sociology will more and more shed the residue of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century thought as we move into this post-modern phase."

Tags:individual, functionalism, society

Abstract
Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality puts forth the ideas about human beings as a part of nature, but distinct from their natural freedoms because of civilization and social organizations. Rousseau's key idea is that in order to live with equality, we must be prepared to give up freedoms in order to work together so that a community structure can be co-produced. For Rousseau, personal freedom comes at too high a social cost, and so communitarianism is argued as a way to produce social equality.

Tags:freedom, for, equality

From the Paper
"The purpose of this research is to examine the phenomenon of the rise in the number of gated communities for the upper middle class of the United States. The plan of the research will be to set forth the historical, social, and cultural context for the increase of gated-community living, and then to discuss how such communities manifest and/or respond to such issues as elitism, concern for personal safety, privacy, communitarianism, and isolation.

In the 1990s, an estimated 8-10 million middle-class and upper-middle-class Americans have become residents in so-called gated communities, at their extreme described as "walled medieval enclaves replete with gates and private security forces" (McCormick, 1998, p. 45). Equally, some 8.5 million poverty-class residents live in an estimated 3,000 ghetto or declining urban .."

Abstract
This paper contends that communitarians take issue with the liberal orientation of securing individual liberty and the just distribution of resources. The paper claims that they emphasize the importance of tradition and community, and yet their notion of community is inadequately conceptualized. Communitarians question the nature of modern liberalism's "unencumbered" individual, who is abstracted from community and who defines obligation in terms of universal duties (abstract rights) or voluntary obligations (contracts). In contrast, the communitarian will argues for the civic republican ideal of an informed and active citizen, participating in and valuing community. But their attempts to reconstitute community betray a lack of understanding of the very nature of the concept from classical sociology. The paper illustrates how the communitarian project only reintroduces problems that disrupt community.

From the Paper
"Liberal theory wants to delineate the principal task of government to that of securing individual liberty and of distributing economic resources equitably, so that those individuals can lead their freely chosen lives. In contrast a cluster of thinkers, labeled communitarian, have taken issue with that orientation, and one point of deliberation has been their emphasis on the importance of tradition and the value of community. However, it may very well be that although the communitarian's critique is decisively relevant, their notion of community will not do the heavy labor that they will want it to do."

Tags:liberal, sociology, tradition

Abstract
The paper identities what is meant by poverty and social exclusion and highlights their differences. The author examines three different strategies that can be adopted by social workers to overcome issues of poverty and social exclusion among young people. The paper describes the use by social care professionals of social justice, social networks and communitarianism.

From the Paper
"Social capital is where social networks exist to support those who are experiencing difficulties. These could include traditional social care professionals; however the role of the wider society is very important. Voluntary support groups along with organisations and clubs could act in a way to provide young people with support if they are feeling alienated from society. However, in recent decades the existence of social capital has significantly reduced and society does not act in the same inclusive and helpful way that it once did."

Tags:networks, sure start, communitarianism, social capital, justice

Abstract
The paper relates that "Fusions" begins with an overview of Taylor's work and world view, describing it as an integration of the ideals of communitarianism, but open to a broader definition of a continuum between communitarianism and liberalism which is not limited to mainstream ideologies. The paper looks at how the author writes that "Taylor does not appreciate the label of communitarian, as it tends to be a larger ideology that contains many conflicting ideas" (Unknown 2). The paper asserts that the author's arguments are drawn largely from a work on Taylor's life written by Ruth Abbey, but does not consider other perceptions of his worldview, including the works of Taylor himself.

From the Paper
"This paper serves to analyze the arguments put forth in the paper, "Charles Taylor's Liberalism: A "Fusion of Horizons" (in this paper referred to heretoforth as "Fusions") and critically ascertain the validity of these arguments with respect to the literature. "Fusions" begins with an overview of Taylor's work and world view, describing it as an integration of the ideals of communitarianism, but open to a broader definition of a continuum between communitarianism and liberalism which is not limited to mainstream ideologies. The author writes that "Taylor does not appreciate the label of communitarian, as it...""

Tags:charles, taylor, liberalism

Abstract
An account of how Hume links religion, morality, philosophy, and politics, with reference to his secular skepticism and ways in which his philosophy prefigures reformism and communitarianism.

From the Paper
"It is impossible to exclude David Hume from the list of significant philosophers of the Enlightenment. It was during the ...th and ...th centuries in particular that Enlightenment thought grew up in the wake of the centuries of religious warfare that devastated Europe and that flared up periodically even after the Peace of Westphalia legitimated sectarian Christianity. It was characterized by interrogation of traditional conceptions of many facets of human experience and by the middle of the ...th century, secular interrogation of religion was routine. Hume's place in this..."

Tags:philosophy, religion, skepticism, atheism, causation, religion, morality, politics

Abstract
This paper takes an in-depth look at the Internet. According to the paper, the meteoric rise of the Internet is bringing with it many compromises to the original visions many had of freely sharing intellectual discoveries, insights, documents, and the creation of a more fluid level of democracy and communitarianism.

Outline:
The Internet's Balkanization and the Quantification of Trust
Orwellian Monitoring Strategies in the 21st Century
Technically Speaking This is Rebellion

From the Paper
"The rise in the cyberculture's rebellious reaction to globalization of the Internet is exemplified in the thousands of chat rooms and websites dedicated to hacking techniques and tools, and the hacking of sites that are focused on taking Internet freedoms away. The most courageous of these hackers are those political voices coming out of China, focused on bringing freedom to that nation. These hackers in China are given multi-year prison sentences as their voices for global change are silenced by an oppressive Chinese government intent on keeping its citizens under political control. One could go as far to say that the Chinese hackers and bloggers are testing the limits of the Internet's use as a vehicle of governmental and societal change. More powerful than the lone figure standing in front of the four tanks in Tiananmen Square (1989) the Internet frightens the Chinese government and the continued voice of dissidents is truly going to test this medium of communication on a global scale."

Tags:hack, hacker, cyber, e-mail, spam, technologies, pda

Abstract
This paper discusses how although Singapore cannot necessarily be considered as a strict democracy in the Westernised conception of the term, it results however from an authoritarian conception of how the state should be administered to achieve social and economic progress and multi-ethnic cohesion. It looks at how social cohesion had to be ensured so that economic progress could be achieved and how therefore the People's Action Party has constantly been putting the emphasis on agglomerating the widest range of interests, even though this has meant the establishment of a "limited democracy".

Outline:
The Main Objectives For a Pragmatic PAP: Economic Success Combined With Social Harmony and Well-Being
An 'Asian' Idea of the State?: Confucianism, Shared Values and Communitarianism
Acceptation of the Regime by the Population?
The Difficulties of Goh Chok Tong
The PAP's Willingness to Maintain Itself as the 'National' Party
What is to be Expected From a Mutating Society?
Conclusion

From the Paper
"Goh Chok Tong succeeded Lee Kuan Yew as Prime Minister of Singapore in 1990, but Yew became Senior Minister and thus occupied the position of advisor to the Prime Minister. This succession resembles a transition between the first and the second generation of leaders in the PAP, a transition that was supposed to lead to more openness of the political regime. Indeed, Lee Kuan Yew and his partisans had recognised a rising aspiration for more popular participation in the ruling of the country. The emphasis was put on the necessity of maintaining continuity and not to produce a rupture with the past. In the 1991 parliamentary elections, the PAP obtained a 'limited' performance in comparison with what it had achieved in the past: the party lost four seats, the parliament being composed of 83 seats. "

Tags:asian, cohesion, communitarism, ethnic, liberalism, multi, national, rights

Abstract
This paper discusses how the conception of justice that liberalism is based on is that all social primary goods -- liberty and opportunity, income and wealth, and the bases of self-respect -- are to be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution of any or all of these goods is to the advantage of the least favored. The writer shows how Rawls breaks this general conception down into two principles: The first principle states that everyone has equal rights and everyone should be able to enjoy these rights as much as possible, without infringing on anyone else's rights. The second principle, called the difference principle, states that inequality should have two restrictions- inequalities have to be beneficial to the least advantaged of society, and inequalities are acceptable only if there is equal opportunity to achieve a higher status. This paper is a critical examination of Liberal Political theory, set forth by Rawls. The paper examines criticism voiced by libertarians, communitarians, and feminists.

From the Paper
"The search for the best of all possible worlds is extremely complicated. How can we decide what is the best world? What features would that world have, and why? Do these features concur with our intuitions about what's right? Are certain standards of equality and justice met? Would most people thrive in this world? Is our view on what is best impartial? In Steve Lukes' novel, Professor Caritat attempts to attain an impartial view of the world by asking, in which world would anyone be happy? In order to answer the question, Caritat tries to imagine the best possible world for an unborn embryo. This hypothetical embryo has no idea of its class, sex, race, ethnicity, religion, health, gender, life prospects, etc. Therefore, the embryo has no idea what sort of position it will occupy in society once it is born. Because the embryo has no identity, Caritat must examine every sector of society to see how everyone is treated, and to what extent everyone is allowed to live a good life. Using this criterion, Caritat concludes that none of the worlds that he visits are the ideal place for the embryo. He describes what he believes to be the best of all possible worlds and that description sounds a lot like a world based on liberal ideals. In this world people have the freedom to choose from all types of lifestyles worth living. Besides rule of law, civil peace and order, this society ensures that everyone has access to basic resources, and that the least advantaged are as well off as possible."

Tags:communitarian, communitarianism, feminism, feminist, libertarian, libertarianism, rawls