https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_picking Cherry-picking is often used in science denial such as climate change denial.
For example, by deliberately cherry picking appropriate time periods,
here 1998–2012, an artificial "pause" can be created, even when there is
an ongoing warming trend.
The same problem could occur with the zoomed-out portion of the graph;
if the data from before 1880 went in an unpredicted direction, that
would cause another (unintentional) cherry picking fallacy. Furthermore,
the temperature average was taken from 1951 to 1980, a relatively short
span of time, so perhaps the true average temperature could be far
different.
Cherry picking, suppressing evidence, or the fallacy of incomplete evidence
is the act of pointing to individual cases or data that seem to confirm
a particular position while ignoring a significant portion of related
and similar cases or data that may contradict that position. Cherry picking may be committed intentionally or unintentionally.
The term is based on the perceived process of harvesting fruit, such as cherries.
The picker would be expected to select only the ripest and healthiest
fruits. An observer who sees only the selected fruit may thus wrongly
conclude that most, or even all, of the tree's fruit is in a likewise
good condition. This can also give a false impression of the quality of
the fruit (since it is only a sample and is not a representative sample).
A concept sometimes confused with cherry picking is the idea of
gathering only the fruit that is easy to harvest, while ignoring other
fruit that is higher up on the tree and thus more difficult to obtain
(see low-hanging fruit).
Cherry picking has a negative connotation as the practice
neglects, overlooks or directly suppresses evidence that could lead to a
complete picture.
Cherry picking can be found in many logical fallacies. For example, the "fallacy of anecdotal evidence"
tends to overlook large amounts of data in favor of that known
personally, "selective use of evidence" rejects material unfavorable to
an argument, while a false dichotomy picks only two options when more are available. Some scholars classify cherry-picking as a fallacy of selective attention, the most common example of which is the confirmation bias.
Cherry picking can refer to the selection of data or data sets so a
study or survey will give desired, predictable results which may be
misleading or even completely contrary to reality.
History
A story about the 5th century BCE atheist philosopher Diagoras of Melos
says how, when shown the votive gifts of people who had supposedly
escaped death by shipwreck by praying to gods, he pointed out that many
people had died at sea in spite of their prayers, yet these cases were not likewise commemorated (this is an example of survivorship bias). Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) in his essay on prophecies comments on people willing to believe in the validity of supposed seers:
I see some who are mightily given
to study and comment upon their almanacs, and produce them to us as an
authority when anything has fallen out pat; and, for that matter, it is
hardly possible but that these alleged authorities sometimes stumble
upon a truth amongst an infinite number of lies. ... I think never the
better of them for some such accidental hit. ... [N]obody records their
flimflams and false prognostics, forasmuch as they are infinite and
common; but if they chop upon one truth, that carries a mighty report,
as being rare, incredible, and prodigious.
In science
Cherry picking is one of the epistemological characteristics of denialism and widely used by different science denialists to seemingly contradict scientific findings. For example, it is used in climate change denial, evolution denial by creationists, denial of the negative health effects of consuming tobacco products and passive smoking.
Choosing to make selective choices
among competing evidence, so as to emphasize those results that support
a given position, while ignoring or dismissing any findings that do not
support it, is a practice known as "cherry picking" and is a hallmark
of poor science or pseudo-science.
— Richard Somerville,
Testimony before the US House of Representatives Committee on Energy
and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power, March 8, 2011
Rigorous science looks at all the
evidence (rather than cherry picking only favorable evidence), controls
for variables as to identify what is actually working, uses blinded
observations so as to minimize the effects of bias, and uses internally
consistent logic."
In a 2002 study, a review of previous medical data found cherry picking in tests of anti-depression medication:
[researchers] reviewed 31 antidepressant efficacy trials
to identify the primary exclusion criteria used in determining
eligibility for participation. Their findings suggest that patients in
current antidepressant trials represent only a minority of patients
treated in routine clinical practice for depression. Excluding potential
clinical trial subjects with certain profiles means that the ability to
generalize the results of antidepressant efficacy trials lacks
empirical support, according to the authors.
In argumentation
In argumentation, the practice of "quote mining" is a form of cherry picking,
in which the debater selectively picks some quotes supporting a
position (or exaggerating an opposing position) while ignoring those
that moderate the original quote or put it into a different context.
Cherry picking in debates is a large problem as the facts themselves are
true but need to be put in context. Because research cannot be done
live and is often untimely, cherry-picked facts or quotes usually stick
in the public mainstream and, even when corrected, lead to widespread
misrepresentation of groups targeted.
One-sided argument
A one-sided argument (also known as card stacking, stacking the deck, ignoring the counterevidence, slanting, and suppressed evidence) is an informal fallacy that occurs when only the reasons supporting a proposition are supplied, while all reasons opposing it are omitted.
The
one-sidedness fallacy does not make an argument invalid. It may not
even make the argument unsound. The fallacy consists in persuading
readers, and perhaps ourselves, that we have said enough to tilt the
scale of evidence and therefore enough to justify a judgment. If we have
been one-sided, though, then we haven't yet said enough to justify a
judgment. The arguments on the other side may be stronger than our own.
We won't know until we examine them. So the one-sidedness fallacy
doesn't mean that your premises are false or irrelevant, only that they
are incomplete.
With rational messages, you need to decide if you want to
use a one-sided argument or a two-sided argument. A one-sided argument
presents only the pro side of the argument, while a two-sided argument
presents both sides. Which one you use will depend on which one meets
your needs and the type of audience. Generally, one-sided arguments are
better with audiences already favorable to your message. Two-sided
arguments are best with audiences who are opposed to your argument, are
better educated or have already been exposed to counter arguments.
Card stacking is a propaganda technique that seeks to manipulate audience perception of an issue by emphasizing one side and repressing another. Such emphasis may be achieved through media bias or the use of one-sided testimonials, or by simply censoring
the voices of critics. The technique is commonly used in persuasive
speeches by political candidates to discredit their opponents and to
make themselves seem more worthy.
The term originates from the magician's gimmick of "stacking the deck", which involves presenting a deck of cards
that appears to have been randomly shuffled but which is, in fact,
'stacked' in a specific order. The magician knows the order and is able
to control the outcome of the trick. In poker, cards can be stacked so
that certain hands are dealt to certain players.
The phenomenon can be applied to any subject and has wide
applications. Whenever a broad spectrum of information exists,
appearances can be rigged by highlighting some facts and ignoring
others. Card stacking can be a tool of advocacy groups or of those
groups with specific agendas.
For example, an enlistment poster might focus upon an impressive
picture, with words such as "travel" and "adventure", while placing the
words, "enlist for two to four years" at the bottom in a smaller and
less noticeable point size.
Green liberalism, or liberal environmentalism, is liberalism that includes green politics in its ideology. Green liberals are usually liberal on social issues and "green" on economic issues. The term "green liberalism" was coined by political philosopher Marcel Wissenburg in his 1998 book Green Liberalism: The Free and The Green Society.
He argues that liberalism must reject the idea of absolute property
rights and accept restraints that limit the freedom to abuse nature and
natural resources. However, he rejects the control of population growth
and any control over the distribution of resources as incompatible with
individual liberty, instead favoring supply-side control: more efficient
production and curbs on overproduction and overexploitation. This view tends to dominate the movement, although critics say it actually puts individual liberties above sustainability.
Philosophy
Green liberalism values the Earth very highly, emphasizing the importance of the planet being passed down to the next generation unharmed. Green liberalism accepts that the natural world is in a state of flux and does not seek to conserve the natural world as it is. However, it does seek to minimize the damage done by the human
species on the natural world and to aid the regeneration of damaged
areas. Green liberalism seeks to combine liberal democratic institutions
and tenets such as equality and freedom of the individual with
environmental protections that seek to reduce major threats to the
environment like overconsumption and air pollution.
On economic issues, green liberals take a position somewhere between classical liberalism (on the center/center-right) and social liberalism
(on the center/center-left): green liberals may favor slightly less
government involvement than social liberals, but far more than classical
liberals. Some green liberals practice free-market environmentalism and thus share some values with rightist classical liberalism or libertarianism. This is one of a few reasons why a blue-green alliance is possible in politics.
The historian Conrad Russell, a BritishLiberal Democrat member of the House of Lords, dedicated a chapter of his book The Intelligent Person's Guide to Liberalism
to the subject of green liberalism. In a literary sense, the term
"Green Liberalism" was coined, however, by political philosopher Marcel
Wissenburg in his 1998 book Green Liberalism: The Free and The Green Society., among others.
Green Liberal Democrats
The
existence of a Green liberal group predates Wissenburg's book by at
least ten years in the UK when a pressure group was formed within the
newly merged Liberal Democrats at a meeting in Nottingham addressed (as
the keynote speaker) by Simon Hughes MP.
The Green Liberal Democrats emerged from this inaugural meeting which
had been organised by the Chair of the pre-existing Liberal Ecology
Group (LEG) which had itself been set up eleven years previously in
1977. Keith Melton, one of the earliest members of LEG (its long title
was the Liberal Ecology Group for Economic and Social Reform) was, at
the time of the merger between the Liberal Party and the SDP
in 1988, a senior lecturer in International Marketing at Nottingham
Trent University, so it made sense to call that meeting in Nottingham.
Most of the delegates at that meeting were LEG members, although there
was a modest contingent from the SDP "Green Group".
The Liberal Ecology Group had been campaigning within the Liberal
Party for years, pushing for a different, zero growth strategy for
economics, following the philosophy elucidated in the Club of Rome`s
report "Limits to Growth". They also campaigned on air pollution
issues, calling for the banning of lead in petrol for example and the
banning of HFCs which were known to damage the ozone layer.
The Green Liberal Democrats has been a very active pressure group
within the Liberal Democrats over the years and in 2018 celebrated 30
years of existence with a conference, also held in Nottingham, also
organised by Keith Melton and also with (now Sir) Simon Hughes as
the initial speaker. The significance of the group and its influence on
the party was marked by other key speakers at the 2018 conference,
including one quarter of the current Liberal Democrats` parliamentary
representatives in the House of Commons. Sir Ed Davey MP
related the environmental impact of the Liberal Democrats in the
coalition years, establishing a Green Investment Bank (subsequently sold
off by the Tory government)
Wera Hobhouse MP updated the Green approach to Air pollution and Sir Vince Cable MP,
leader of the Liberal Democrats, and Honorary Professor of Economics at
Nottingham University, the venue for the 2018 GLD conference, had the
task of reviewing how the concept of Sustainable Development withstood
the ravages of time. Cable was one of the co-authors of the Brundtland
Commission report in 1987 which first introduced the sustainable
development concept, championed by Gro Harlem Brundtland, the
Commission`s Chair (and three-time prime minister of Norway).
One of the key early successes of the Green Liberal Democrats,
and its new Chair, Keith Melton, was to ensure that the preamble to the
Liberal Democrat constitution had a key reference to Green issues at the
heart of the party with the following sentence appearing immediately
after the first paragraph defining Liberal Philosophy - "We believe
that each generation is responsible for the fate of our planet and, by
safeguarding the balance of nature and the environment, for the long
term continuity of life in all its forms."
The Liberal Party of Canada under Stéphane Dion placed the environment at the front of its political agenda, proposing an ecotax and tax shift
called the Green Shift. Similarly, the British Liberal Democrats have
drawn on the same concept to propose a "Green Tax Switch".
Communitarianism is a philosophy that emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community.
Its overriding philosophy is based on the belief that a person's social
identity and personality are largely molded by community relationships,
with a smaller degree of development being placed on individualism.
Although the community might be a family, communitarianism usually is
understood, in the wider, philosophical sense, as a collection of interactions,
among a community of people in a given place (geographical location),
or among a community who share an interest or who share a history. Communitarianism usually opposes extreme individualism and rejects extreme laissez-faire policies that deprioritize the stability of the overall community.
Terminology
The philosophy of communitarianism originated in the 20th century, but the term "communitarian" was coined in 1841, by John Goodwyn Barmby, a leader of the British Chartist movement, who used it in referring to utopian socialists and other idealists who experimented with communal styles of life.
However, it was not until the 1980s that the term "communitarianism"
gained currency through association with the work of a small group of political philosophers.
Their application of the label "communitarian" was controversial, even
among communitarians, because, in the West, the term evokes associations
with the ideologies of socialism and collectivism;
so, public leaders—and some of the academics who champion this school
of thought—usually avoid the term "communitarian", while still
advocating and advancing the ideas of communitarianism.
The term is primarily used in two senses:
Philosophical communitarianism considers classical liberalism to be ontologically and epistemologically
incoherent, and opposes it on those grounds. Unlike classical
liberalism, which construes communities as originating from the
voluntary acts of pre-community individuals,
it emphasizes the role of the community in defining and shaping
individuals. Communitarians believe that the value of community is not
sufficiently recognized in liberal theories of justice.
Ideological communitarianism is characterized as a radical centrist ideology that is sometimes marked by socially conservative and economically interventionist
policies. This usage was coined recently. When the term is capitalized,
it usually refers to the Responsive Communitarian movement of Amitai Etzioni and other philosophers.
Czech and Slovak philosophers like Marek Hrubec, Lukáš Perný and Luboš Blaha extend communitarianism to social projects tied to the values and significance of community or collectivism and to various types of communism and socialism (Christian, scientific, or utopian), including:
While
the term communitarian was coined only in the mid-nineteenth century,
ideas that are communitarian in nature appeared much earlier. They are
found in some classical socialist doctrines (e.g. writings about the
early commune and about workers' solidarity), and further back in the New Testament. Communitarianism has been traced back to early monasticism.
A number of early sociologists had strongly communitarian elements in their work, such as Ferdinand Tönnies in his comparison of Gemeinschaft (oppressive but nurturing communities) and Gesellschaft (liberating but impersonal societies), and Emile Durkheim's
concerns about the integrating role of social values and the relations
between the individual and society. Both authors warned of the dangers
of anomie
(normlessness) and alienation in modern societies composed of atomized
individuals who had gained their liberty but lost their social moorings.
Modern sociologists saw the rise of mass society and the decline of
communal bonds and respect for traditional values and authority in the
United States as of the 1960s. Among those who raised these issues were
Robert Nisbet (Twilight of Authority), Robert N. BellahHabits of the Heart, and Alan Ehrenhalt (The Lost City: The Forgotten Virtues Of Community In America).
In his book Bowling Alone (2000), Robert Putnam documented the decline
of "social capital" and stressed the importance of "bridging social
capital," in which bonds of connectedness are formed across diverse
social groups.
In the twentieth century communitarianism also began to be formulated as a philosophy by Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement. In an early article the Catholic Worker clarified the dogma of the Mystical Body of Christ as the basis for the movement's communitarianism. Along similar lines, communitarianism is also related to the personalist philosophy of Emmanuel Mounier.
Responding to criticism that the term 'community' is too vague or cannot be defined, Amitai Etzioni,
one of the leaders of the American communitarian movement, pointed out
that communities can be defined with reasonable precision as having two
characteristics: first, a web of affect-laden relationships among a
group of individuals, relationships that often crisscross and reinforce
one another (as opposed to one-on-one or chain-like individual
relationships); and second, a measure of commitment to a set of shared
values, norms, and meanings, and a shared history and identity – in
short, a particular culture.
Further, author David E. Pearson argued that "[t]o earn the appellation
'community,' it seems to me, groups must be able to exert moral suasion
and extract a measure of compliance from their members. That is,
communities are necessarily, indeed, by definition, coercive as well as
moral, threatening their members with the stick of sanctions if they
stray, offering them the carrot of certainty and stability if they
don't."
What is specifically meant by "community" in the context of
communitarianism can vary greatly between authors and periods.
Historically, communities have been small and localized. However, as the
reach of economic and technological forces extended, more expansive
communities became necessary to provide effective normative and
political guidance to these forces, prompting the rise of national
communities in Europe in the 17th century. Since the late 20th century
there has been some growing recognition that the scope of even these
communities is too limited, as many challenges that people now face,
such as the threat of nuclear war and that of global environmental
degradation and economic crises, cannot be handled on a national basis.
This has led to the quest for more encompassing communities, such as the
European Union. Whether truly supra-national communities can be developed is far from clear.
More modern communities can take many different forms, but are
often limited in scope and reach. For example, members of one
residential community are often also members of other communities – such
as work, ethnic, or religious ones. As a result, modern community
members have multiple sources of attachments, and if one threatens to
become overwhelming, individuals will often pull back and turn to
another community for their attachments. Thus, communitarianism is the
reaction of some intellectuals to the problems of Western society, an
attempt to find flexible forms of balance between the individual and
society, the autonomy of the individual and the interests of the
community, between the common good and freedom, rights, and duties.
Academic communitarianism
Whereas the classical liberalism of the Enlightenment
can be viewed as a reaction to centuries of authoritarianism,
oppressive government, overbearing communities, and rigid dogma, modern
communitarianism can be considered a reaction to excessive
individualism, understood as an undue emphasis on individual rights,
leading people to become selfish or egocentric.
The close relation between the individual and the community was discussed on a theoretical level by Michael Sandel and Charles Taylor,
among other academic communitarians, in their criticisms of
philosophical liberalism, especially the work of the American liberal
theorist John Rawls and that of the German Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant.
They argued that contemporary liberalism failed to account for the
complex set of social relations that all individuals in the modern world
are a part of. Liberalism is rooted in an untenable ontology that
posits the existence of generic individuals and fails to account for
social embeddedness. To the contrary, they argued, there are no generic
individuals but rather only Germans or Russians, Berliners or
Muscovites, or members of some other particularistic community. Because
individual identity is partly constructed by culture and social
relations, there is no coherent way of formulating individual rights or
interests in abstraction from social contexts. Thus, according to these
communitarians, there is no point in attempting to found a theory of
justice on principles decided behind Rawls' veil of ignorance, because individuals cannot exist in such an abstracted state, even in principle.
Academic communitarians also contend that the nature of the
political community is misunderstood by liberalism. Where liberal
philosophers described the polity as a neutral framework of rules within
which a multiplicity of commitments to moral values can coexist,
academic communitarians argue that such a thin conception of political
community was both empirically misleading and normatively dangerous.
Good societies, these authors believe, rest on much more than neutral
rules and procedures—they rely on a shared moral culture. Some academic
communitarians argued even more strongly on behalf of such
particularistic values, suggesting that these were the only kind of
values which matter and that it is a philosophical error to posit any
truly universal moral values.
Beginning
in the late 20th century, many authors began to observe a deterioration
in the social networks of the United States. In the book Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam
observed that nearly every form of civic organization has undergone
drops in membership exemplified by the fact that, while more people are
bowling than in the 1950s, there are fewer bowling leagues.
This results in a decline in "social capital", described by Putnam as "the collective value of all 'social networks'
and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for
each other". According to Putnam and his followers, social capital is a
key component to building and maintaining democracy.
Communitarians seek to bolster social capital and the institutions of civil society. The Responsive Communitarian Platform described it thus:
Many social goals require partnerships between public and private
groups. Though the government should not seek to replace local
communities, it may need to empower them by strategies of support,
including revenue-sharing and technical assistance. There is a great
need for study and experimentation with creative use of the structures
of civil society, and public-private cooperation, especially where the
delivery of health, educational and social services are concerned.
Positive rights
Important to some supporters of communitarian philosophy is the concept of positive rights,
which are rights or guarantees to certain things. These may include
state-subsidized education, state-subsidized housing, a safe and clean
environment, universal health care, and even the right to a job with the
concomitant obligation of the government or individuals to provide one.
To this end, communitarians generally support social security programs,
public works programs, and laws limiting such things as pollution.
A common objection is that by providing such rights, communitarians violate the negative rights of the citizens; rights to not
have something done for you. For example, taxation to pay for such
programs as described above dispossesses individuals of property.
Proponents of positive rights, by attributing the protection of negative
rights to the society rather than the government, respond that
individuals would not have any rights in the absence of societies—a
central tenet of communitarianism—and thus have a responsibility to give
something back to it. Some have viewed this as a negation of natural rights.
However, what is or is not a "natural right" is a source of contention
in modern politics, as well as historically; for example, whether or not
universal health care, private property or protection from polluters
can be considered a birthright.
Alternatively, some agree that negative rights may be violated by
a government action, but argue that it is justifiable if the positive
rights protected outweigh the negative rights lost.
Still, other communitarians question the very idea of natural
rights and their place in a properly functioning community. They claim
that instead, claims of rights and entitlements create a society unable
to form cultural institutions and grounded social norms based on shared
values. Rather, the liberalist claim to individual rights leads to a
morality centered on individual emotivism, as ethical issues can no
longer be solved by working through common understandings of the good.
The worry here is that not only is society individualized, but so are
moral claims.
Responsive communitarianism movement
In
the early 1990s, in response to the perceived breakdown in the moral
fabric of society engendered by excessive individualism, Amitai Etzioni
and William A. Galston began to organize working meetings to think
through communitarian approaches to key societal issues. This ultimately
took the communitarian philosophy from a small academic group,
introduced it into public life, and recast its philosophical content.
Deeming themselves "responsive communitarians" in order to
distinguish the movement from authoritarian communitarians, Etzioni and
Galston, along with a varied group of academics (including Mary Ann Glendon, Thomas A. Spragens, James Fishkin, Benjamin Barber, Hans Joas, Philip Selznick, and Robert N. Bellah, among others) drafted and published The Responsive Communitarian Platform
based on their shared political principles, and the ideas in it were
eventually elaborated in academic and popular books and periodicals,
gaining thereby a measure of political currency in the West. Etzioni
later formed the Communitarian Network to study and promote
communitarian approaches to social issues and began publishing a
quarterly journal, The Responsive Community.
The main thesis of responsive communitarianism is that people
face two major sources of normativity: that of the common good and that
of autonomy and rights, neither of which in principle should take
precedence over the other. This can be contrasted with other political
and social philosophies which derive their core assumptions from one
overarching principle (such as liberty/autonomy for libertarianism). It
further posits that a good society is based on a carefully crafted
balance between liberty and social order, between individual rights and
personal responsibility, and between pluralistic and socially
established values.
Responsive communitarianism stresses the importance of society
and its institutions above and beyond that of the state and the market,
which are often the focus of other political philosophies. It also
emphasizes the key role played by socialization, moral culture, and
informal social controls rather than state coercion or market pressures.
It provides an alternative to liberal individualism and a major
counterpoint to authoritarian communitarianism by stressing that strong
rights presume strong responsibilities and that one should not be
neglected in the name of the other.
Following standing sociological positions, communitarians assume
that the moral character of individuals tends to degrade over time
unless that character is continually and communally reinforced. They
contend that a major function of the community, as a building block of
moral infrastructure, is to reinforce the character of its members
through the community's "moral voice", defined as the informal sanction
of others, built into a web of informal affect-laden relationships,
which communities provide.
Influence
Responsive
communitarians have been playing a considerable public role, presenting
themselves as the founders of a different kind of environmental
movement, one dedicated to shoring up society (as opposed to the state)
rather than nature. Like environmentalism, communitarianism appeals to
audiences across the political spectrum, although it has found greater
acceptance with some groups than others.
Although communitarianism is a small philosophical school, it has
had considerable influence on public dialogues and politics. There are
strong similarities between communitarian thinking and the Third Way,
the political thinking of centrist Democrats in the United States, and
the Neue Mitte in Germany. Communitarianism played a key role in Tony
Blair's remaking of the British socialist Labour Party into "New Labour"
and a smaller role in President Bill Clinton's campaigns. Other
politicians have echoed key communitarian themes, such as Hillary
Clinton, who has long held that to raise a child takes not just parents,
family, friends and neighbors, but a whole "village".
It has also been suggested that the compassionate conservatism
espoused by President Bush during his 2000 presidential campaign was a
form of conservative communitarian thinking, although he did not
implement it in his policy program. Cited policies have included
economic and rhetorical support for education, volunteerism, and
community programs, as well as a social emphasis on promoting families,
character education, traditional values, and faith-based projects.
President Barack Obama gave voice to communitarian ideas and ideals in his book The Audacity of Hope,
and during the 2008 presidential election campaign he repeatedly called
upon Americans to "ground our politics in the notion of a common good,"
for an "age of responsibility," and for foregoing identity politics in
favor of community-wide unity building. However, for many in the West,
the term communitarian conjures up authoritarian and collectivist
associations, so many public leaders – and even several academics
considered champions of this school – avoid the term while embracing and
advancing its ideas.
Reflecting the dominance of liberal and conservative politics
in the United States, no major party and few elected officials openly
advocate communitarianism. Thus there is no consensus on individual
policies, but some that most communitarians endorse have been enacted.
Nonetheless, there is a small faction of communitarians within the
Democratic Party; prominent communitarians include Bob Casey Jr., Joe Donnelly, and Claire McCaskill. Many communitarian Democrats are part of the Blue Dog Coalition. It is quite possible that the United States' right-libertarian ideological underpinnings have suppressed major communitarian factions from emerging.
Dana Milbank, writing in The Washington Post,
remarked of modern communitarians, "There is still no such thing as a
card-carrying communitarian, and therefore no consensus on policies.
Some, such as John DiIulio and outside Bush adviser Marvin Olasky, favor religious solutions for communities, while others, like Etzioni and Galston, prefer secular approaches."
In August 2011, the right-libertarian Reason Magazine
worked with the Rupe organization to survey 1,200 Americans by
telephone. The Reason-Rupe poll found that "Americans cannot easily be
bundled into either the 'liberal' or 'conservative' groups".
Specifically, 28% expressed conservative views, 24% expressed
libertarian views, 20% expressed communitarian views, and 28% expressed
liberal views. The margin of error was ±3.
A similar Gallup survey in 2011 included possible centrist/moderate
responses. That poll reported that 17% expressed conservative views,
22% expressed libertarian views, 20% expressed communitarian views, 17%
expressed centrist views, and 24% expressed liberal views. The
organization used the terminology "the bigger the better" to describe
communitarianism.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, founded and led by Imran Khan, is considered the first political party in the world which has declared communitarianism as one of their official ideologies.
Comparison to other political philosophies
A variant of the Nolan chart using traditional political color coding (red leftism versus blue rightism) with communitarianism on the top left
Early communitarians were charged with being, in effect, social
conservatives. However, many contemporary communitarians, especially
those who define themselves as responsive communitarians, fully realize
and often stress that they do not seek to return to traditional
communities, with their authoritarian power structure, rigid
stratification, and discriminatory practices against minorities and
women. Responsive communitarians seek to build communities based on open
participation, dialogue, and truly shared values. Linda McClain,
a critic of communitarians, recognizes this feature of the responsive
communitarians, writing that some communitarians do "recognize the need
for careful evaluation of what is good and bad about [any specific]
tradition and the possibility of severing certain features . . . from
others."
And R. Bruce Douglass writes, "Unlike conservatives, communitarians are
aware that the days when the issues we face as a society could be
settled on the basis of the beliefs of a privileged segment of the
population have long since passed."
One major way the communitarian position differs from the social
conservative one is that although communitarianism's ideal "good
society" reaches into the private realm, it seeks to cultivate only a
limited set of core virtues through an organically developed set of
values rather than having an expansive or holistically normative agenda
given by the state. For example, American society favors being religious
over being atheist, but is rather neutral with regard to which
particular religion a person should follow. There are no
state-prescribed dress codes, "correct" number of children to have, or
places one is expected to live, etc. In short, a key defining
characteristic of the ideal communitarian society is that in contrast to
a liberal state, it creates shared formulations of the good, but the
scope of this good is much smaller than that advanced by authoritarian
societies."
Criticism
Liberal theorists, such as Simon Caney,
disagree that philosophical communitarianism has any interesting
criticisms to make of liberalism. They reject the communitarian charges
that liberalism neglects the value of community, and holds an "atomized"
or asocial view of the self.
According to Peter Sutch the principal criticisms of communitarianism are:
that this relativism leads necessarily to a re-endorsement of the status quo in international politics; and
that such a position relies upon a discredited ontological argument
that posits the foundational status of the community or state.
Other critics emphasize close relation of communitarianism to neoliberalism and new policies of dismantling the welfare state institutions through development of the third sector.
Opposition
Bruce Frohnen – author of The New Communitarians and the Crisis of Modern Liberalism (1996)
Charles Arthur Willard – author of Liberalism and the Problem of Knowledge: A New Rhetoric for Modern Democracy, University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Transnationalism is a research field and social phenomenon grown out of the heightened interconnectivity between people and the receding economic and social significance of boundaries among nation states.
Overview
The term "trans-national" was popularized in the early 20th century by writer Randolph Bourne to describe a new way of thinking about relationships between cultures. However, the term itself was coined by a colleague in college.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary states 1921 was the year the term
"transnational" was first used in print, which was after Bourne's death.
Transnationalism as an economic
process involves the global reorganization of the production process,
in which various stages of the production of any product can occur in
various countries, typically with the aim of minimizing costs. Economic
transnationalism, commonly known as globalization,
was spurred in the latter half of the 20th century by the development
of the internet and wireless communication, as well as the reduction in
global transportation costs caused by containerization. Multinational corporations
could be seen as a form of transnationalism, in that they seek to
minimize costs, and hence maximize profits, by organizing their
operations in the most efficient means possible irrespective of
political boundaries.
Proponents of transnational capitalism seek to facilitate the flow of people, ideas, and goods among regions.
They believe that it has increasing relevance with the rapid growth of
capitalist globalization. They contend that it does not make sense to
link specific nation-state boundaries with for instance migratory workforces, globalized corporations,
global money flow, global information flow, and global scientific
cooperation. However, critical theories of transnationalism have argued
that transnational capitalism has occurred through the increasing
monopolization and centralization of capital by leading dominant groups
in the global economy and various power blocs. Scholars critical of
global capitalism (and its global ecological and inequality crises) have
argued instead for a transnationalism from below between workers and
co-operatives as well as popular social and political movements.
Transnationalism as concept, theory and experience has nourished
an important literature in social sciences. In practice transnationalism
refers to increasing functional integration of processes that
cross-borders or according to others trans bordered relations of
individuals, groups, firms and to mobilizations beyond state boundaries.
Individuals, groups, institutions and states interact with each other
in a new global space where cultural and political characteristic of
national societies are combined with emerging multilevel and
multinational activities. Transnationalism is a part of the process of
capitalist globalization. The concept of transnationalism refers to
multiple links and interactions linking people and institutions across
the borders of nation-states.
Although much of the more recent literature has focused on popular
protest as a form of transnational activism, some research has also
drawn attention to clandestine and criminal networks, as well as foreign
fighters, as examples of a wider form of transnationalism.
Some have argued that diasporas, such as the overseas Chinese, are a historical precursor
to modern transnationalism. However, unlike some people with
transnationalist lives, most diasporas have not been voluntary. The
field of diaspora politics
does consider modern diasporas as having the potential to be
transnational political actors and be influenced by transnational
political forces.
While the term "transnationalism" emphasizes the ways in which nations
are no longer able to contain or control the disputes and negotiations
through which social groups annex a global dimension to their meaningful
practices, the notion of diaspora brings to the fore the racial
dynamics underlying the international division of labor and the economic turmoil of global capital. In an article published in 2006, Asale Angel-Ajani claimed that "there is the possibility within diaspora studies to move away from the politically sanitized discourse that surrounds transnational studies". Since African diaspora studies have focused on racial formation, racism, and white supremacy, diaspora theory
has the potential to bring to transnationalism "a varied political, if
not radical political, perspective to the study of transnational
processes and—globalization".
Causes
Different
approaches have attempted to explain transnationalism. Some argue that
it is driven mainly by the development of technologies that have made
transportation and communication more accessible and affordable, which
thus dramatically change the relationship between people and places. It
is now possible for immigrants to maintain closer and more frequent
contact with their home societies than ever before.
However, the integration of international migrations to the
demographic future of many developed countries is another important
driver for transnationalism. Beyond simply filling a demand for low-wage
workers, migration also fills the demographic gaps created by declining
natural populations in most industrialized countries. Today, migration
accounts for three fifths of population growth on western countries as a
whole, a trend that shows no signs of slowing down.
Moreover, global political transformations and new international
legal regimes have weakened the state as the only legitimate source of
rights. Decolonization, the fall of communism, and the ascendance of human rights
have forced states to take account of persons as persons, rather than
as citizens. As a result, individuals have rights regardless of their
citizenship status within a country.
Others, from a neo-Marxist approach, argue that transnational
class relations have come about concomitantly with novel organizational
and technological advancements and the spread of transnational chains of
production and finance.
Immigrant transnational activities
When
immigrants engage in transnational activities, they create "social
fields" that link their original country with their new country or
countries of residence. "We have defined transnationalism as the process
by which immigrants build social fields that link together their
country of origin and their country of settlement".
These social fields are the product of a series of interconnected and
overlapping economic, political, and socio-cultural activities:
Economic transnational activities
Economic transnational activities such as business investments in home countries and monetary remittances
are both pervasive and well documented. The Inter-American Development
Bank (IDB) estimates that in 2006 immigrants living in developed
countries sent home the equivalent of $300 billion in remittances, an
amount more than double the level of international aid. This intense
influx of resources may mean that for some nations development prospects
become inextricably linked—if not dependent upon—the economic
activities of their respective diasporas.
Political transnational activities
Political
transnational activities can range from retained membership in
political parties in one's country of origin and voting in its elections
to even running for political office. Less formal but still significant
roles include the transfer or dissemination of political ideas and
norms, such as publishing an op-ed in a home country newspaper, writing a
blog, or lobbying a local elected official. There is also the more
extreme example of individuals such as Jesus Galvis, a travel agent in
New Jersey who in 1997 ran for a Senate seat in his native Colombia. He
was elected and intended to hold office simultaneously in Bogota and
Hackensack, New Jersey where he served as a city councilor.
Political economy
The
rise of global capitalism has occurred through a novel and increasingly
functional integration of capitalist chains of production and finance
across borders which is tied to the formation of a transnational
capitalist class. This approach has led to a broader study of corporate networks, the global working class and the transnationalization of state apparatuses and elites.
Psychology
Transnational psychology
developed in response to the new psychological contexts created by
escalating globalization, global power dynamics, increasing migration,
an ever more interconnected world, and other phenomena that transcend
nation-state boundaries. It is a branch of psychology that applies postcolonial, postmodern context-sensitive cultural psychology, and transnational feminist lenses to the field of psychology to study, understand, and address the impact of colonization, imperialism, and globalization,
and to counter the Western bias in the field of psychology.
Transnational psychologists partner with members of local communities to
examine the unique psychological characteristics of groups without
regard to nation-state boundaries.
Socio-cultural transnational activities
Transnationalism
is an analytic lens used to understand immigrant and minority
populations as a meeting of multiple simultaneous histories.
Socio-cultural transnational activities cover a wide array of social
and cultural transactions through which ideas and meanings are
exchanged. Recent research has established the concept and importance of
social remittances which provide a distinct form of social capital
between migrants living abroad and those who remain at home.
These transfers of socio-cultural meanings and practices occur either
during the increased number of visits that immigrants take back to their
home countries or visits made by non-migrants to friends and families
living in the receiving countries or through the dramatically increased
forms of correspondence such as emails, online chat sessions, telephone
calls, CDs/ VDOs, and traditional letters.
In the late 1980s, ethnic studies scholars would largely move towards models of diaspora to understand immigrant communities in relation to area studies, although lone patterns of international flow would become accompanied by the multiple flows of transnationalism.
However, to say that immigrants build social fields that link those
abroad with those back home is not to say that their lives are not
firmly rooted in a particular place and time. Indeed, they are as much
residents of their new community as anyone else.
Transnationalism is criticized for being too far removed from
ethnic studies' efforts to empower solidarity in minority communities. Asian American Studies
provides a counterargument in that its inception was based in
comparative analysis of the racial discrimination against Asian
Americans and Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. A collection of scholarly articles, edited by Terese Guinsatao Monberg
and Morris Young, seeks to understand how transnationalism reveals ways
Asian/Americans "negotiate, resist, and work against emerging,
shifting, and often intensified 'highly asymmetrical relations of
power.'" Furthermore, inter-movement spillover plays an important role in transnational climate change politics.
Based on these findings, one can conclude that when movements come
together in the form of actors and social change tactics, movements
become stronger and more prominent. This is the purpose and overall
effect of inter-movement spillover.
Migration
Transnationalism has significant implications for the way we conceptualize immigration.
Traditionally, immigration has been seen as an autonomous process,
driven by conditions such as poverty and overpopulation in the country
of origin and unrelated to conditions (such as foreign policy and
economic needs) in the receiving country. Even though overpopulation, economic stagnation, and poverty all continue to create pressures for migration, they alone are not enough to produce large international migration
flows. There are many countries, for example, which lack significant
emigration history despite longstanding poverty. Also, most
international immigration flows from the global South to the global
North are not made up by the poorest of the poor, but, generally by
professionals. In addition, there are countries with high levels of job
creation that continue to witness emigration on a large scale.
The reasons and promoters for migration are not only embodied
within the country of origin. Instead, they are rooted within the
broader geopolitical and global dynamics. Significant evidence of
geographic migration patterns suggests that receiving countries become
home to immigrants from the receiving country's zone of influence. Then,
immigration is but a fundamental component of the process of capitalist
expansion, market penetration, and globalization. There are systematic
and structural relations between globalization and immigration.
The emergence of a global economy
has contributed both to the creation of potential emigrants abroad and
to the formation of economic, cultural, and ideological links between
industrialized and developing countries that later serve as bridges for
the international migration. For example, the same set of circumstances
and processes that have promoted the location of factories and offices
abroad have also contributed to the creation of large supply of low-wage
jobs for which immigrant workers constitute a desirable labor supply.
Moreover, the decline of manufacturing jobs and the growth of the
service sector, key drivers of the globalization of production, have
transformed western economies’ occupational and income structure.
Unlike the manufacturing sector, which traditionally supplied
middle-income jobs and competitive benefits, the majority of service
jobs are either extremely well-paid or extremely poorly paid, with
relatively few jobs in the middle-income range. Many of the jobs lack
key benefits such as health insurance. Sales representatives, restaurant
wait staff, administrative assistants, and custodial workers are among
the growth occupations.
Finally, the fact that the major growth sectors rather than
declining sectors are generating the most low-wage jobs shows that the
supply of such jobs will continue to increase for the predictable
future. The entry of migrant workers will similarly continue to meet the
demand. In turn, this inflow provides the raw material out of which
transnational communities emerge.
Transnationalism is a research field and social phenomenon grown out of the heightened interconnectivity between people and the receding economic and social significance of boundaries among nation states.
Overview
The term "trans-national" was popularized in the early 20th century by writer Randolph Bourne to describe a new way of thinking about relationships between cultures. However, the term itself was coined by a colleague in college.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary states 1921 was the year the term
"transnational" was first used in print, which was after Bourne's death.
Transnationalism as an economic
process involves the global reorganization of the production process,
in which various stages of the production of any product can occur in
various countries, typically with the aim of minimizing costs. Economic
transnationalism, commonly known as globalization,
was spurred in the latter half of the 20th century by the development
of the internet and wireless communication, as well as the reduction in
global transportation costs caused by containerization. Multinational corporations
could be seen as a form of transnationalism, in that they seek to
minimize costs, and hence maximize profits, by organizing their
operations in the most efficient means possible irrespective of
political boundaries.
Proponents of transnational capitalism seek to facilitate the flow of people, ideas, and goods among regions.
They believe that it has increasing relevance with the rapid growth of
capitalist globalization. They contend that it does not make sense to
link specific nation-state boundaries with for instance migratory workforces, globalized corporations,
global money flow, global information flow, and global scientific
cooperation. However, critical theories of transnationalism have argued
that transnational capitalism has occurred through the increasing
monopolization and centralization of capital by leading dominant groups
in the global economy and various power blocs. Scholars critical of
global capitalism (and its global ecological and inequality crises) have
argued instead for a transnationalism from below between workers and
co-operatives as well as popular social and political movements.
Transnationalism as concept, theory and experience has nourished
an important literature in social sciences. In practice transnationalism
refers to increasing functional integration of processes that
cross-borders or according to others trans bordered relations of
individuals, groups, firms and to mobilizations beyond state boundaries.
Individuals, groups, institutions and states interact with each other
in a new global space where cultural and political characteristic of
national societies are combined with emerging multilevel and
multinational activities. Transnationalism is a part of the process of
capitalist globalization. The concept of transnationalism refers to
multiple links and interactions linking people and institutions across
the borders of nation-states.
Although much of the more recent literature has focused on popular
protest as a form of transnational activism, some research has also
drawn attention to clandestine and criminal networks, as well as foreign
fighters, as examples of a wider form of transnationalism.
Some have argued that diasporas, such as the overseas Chinese, are a historical precursor
to modern transnationalism. However, unlike some people with
transnationalist lives, most diasporas have not been voluntary. The
field of diaspora politics
does consider modern diasporas as having the potential to be
transnational political actors and be influenced by transnational
political forces.
While the term "transnationalism" emphasizes the ways in which nations
are no longer able to contain or control the disputes and negotiations
through which social groups annex a global dimension to their meaningful
practices, the notion of diaspora brings to the fore the racial
dynamics underlying the international division of labor and the economic turmoil of global capital. In an article published in 2006, Asale Angel-Ajani claimed that "there is the possibility within diaspora studies to move away from the politically sanitized discourse that surrounds transnational studies". Since African diaspora studies have focused on racial formation, racism, and white supremacy, diaspora theory
has the potential to bring to transnationalism "a varied political, if
not radical political, perspective to the study of transnational
processes and—globalization".
Causes
Different
approaches have attempted to explain transnationalism. Some argue that
it is driven mainly by the development of technologies that have made
transportation and communication more accessible and affordable, which
thus dramatically change the relationship between people and places. It
is now possible for immigrants to maintain closer and more frequent
contact with their home societies than ever before.
However, the integration of international migrations to the
demographic future of many developed countries is another important
driver for transnationalism. Beyond simply filling a demand for low-wage
workers, migration also fills the demographic gaps created by declining
natural populations in most industrialized countries. Today, migration
accounts for three fifths of population growth on western countries as a
whole, a trend that shows no signs of slowing down.
Moreover, global political transformations and new international
legal regimes have weakened the state as the only legitimate source of
rights. Decolonization, the fall of communism, and the ascendance of human rights
have forced states to take account of persons as persons, rather than
as citizens. As a result, individuals have rights regardless of their
citizenship status within a country.
Others, from a neo-Marxist approach, argue that transnational
class relations have come about concomitantly with novel organizational
and technological advancements and the spread of transnational chains of
production and finance.
Immigrant transnational activities
When
immigrants engage in transnational activities, they create "social
fields" that link their original country with their new country or
countries of residence. "We have defined transnationalism as the process
by which immigrants build social fields that link together their
country of origin and their country of settlement".
These social fields are the product of a series of interconnected and
overlapping economic, political, and socio-cultural activities:
Economic transnational activities
Economic transnational activities such as business investments in home countries and monetary remittances
are both pervasive and well documented. The Inter-American Development
Bank (IDB) estimates that in 2006 immigrants living in developed
countries sent home the equivalent of $300 billion in remittances, an
amount more than double the level of international aid. This intense
influx of resources may mean that for some nations development prospects
become inextricably linked—if not dependent upon—the economic
activities of their respective diasporas.
Political transnational activities
Political
transnational activities can range from retained membership in
political parties in one's country of origin and voting in its elections
to even running for political office. Less formal but still significant
roles include the transfer or dissemination of political ideas and
norms, such as publishing an op-ed in a home country newspaper, writing a
blog, or lobbying a local elected official. There is also the more
extreme example of individuals such as Jesus Galvis, a travel agent in
New Jersey who in 1997 ran for a Senate seat in his native Colombia. He
was elected and intended to hold office simultaneously in Bogota and
Hackensack, New Jersey where he served as a city councilor.
Political economy
The
rise of global capitalism has occurred through a novel and increasingly
functional integration of capitalist chains of production and finance
across borders which is tied to the formation of a transnational
capitalist class. This approach has led to a broader study of corporate networks, the global working class and the transnationalization of state apparatuses and elites.
Psychology
Transnational psychology
developed in response to the new psychological contexts created by
escalating globalization, global power dynamics, increasing migration,
an ever more interconnected world, and other phenomena that transcend
nation-state boundaries. It is a branch of psychology that applies postcolonial, postmodern context-sensitive cultural psychology, and transnational feminist lenses to the field of psychology to study, understand, and address the impact of colonization, imperialism, and globalization,
and to counter the Western bias in the field of psychology.
Transnational psychologists partner with members of local communities to
examine the unique psychological characteristics of groups without
regard to nation-state boundaries.
Socio-cultural transnational activities
Transnationalism
is an analytic lens used to understand immigrant and minority
populations as a meeting of multiple simultaneous histories.
Socio-cultural transnational activities cover a wide array of social
and cultural transactions through which ideas and meanings are
exchanged. Recent research has established the concept and importance of
social remittances which provide a distinct form of social capital
between migrants living abroad and those who remain at home.
These transfers of socio-cultural meanings and practices occur either
during the increased number of visits that immigrants take back to their
home countries or visits made by non-migrants to friends and families
living in the receiving countries or through the dramatically increased
forms of correspondence such as emails, online chat sessions, telephone
calls, CDs/ VDOs, and traditional letters.
In the late 1980s, ethnic studies scholars would largely move towards models of diaspora to understand immigrant communities in relation to area studies, although lone patterns of international flow would become accompanied by the multiple flows of transnationalism.
However, to say that immigrants build social fields that link those
abroad with those back home is not to say that their lives are not
firmly rooted in a particular place and time. Indeed, they are as much
residents of their new community as anyone else.
Transnationalism is criticized for being too far removed from
ethnic studies' efforts to empower solidarity in minority communities. Asian American Studies
provides a counterargument in that its inception was based in
comparative analysis of the racial discrimination against Asian
Americans and Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. A collection of scholarly articles, edited by Terese Guinsatao Monberg
and Morris Young, seeks to understand how transnationalism reveals ways
Asian/Americans "negotiate, resist, and work against emerging,
shifting, and often intensified 'highly asymmetrical relations of
power.'" Furthermore, inter-movement spillover plays an important role in transnational climate change politics.
Based on these findings, one can conclude that when movements come
together in the form of actors and social change tactics, movements
become stronger and more prominent. This is the purpose and overall
effect of inter-movement spillover.
Migration
Transnationalism has significant implications for the way we conceptualize immigration.
Traditionally, immigration has been seen as an autonomous process,
driven by conditions such as poverty and overpopulation in the country
of origin and unrelated to conditions (such as foreign policy and
economic needs) in the receiving country. Even though overpopulation, economic stagnation, and poverty all continue to create pressures for migration, they alone are not enough to produce large international migration
flows. There are many countries, for example, which lack significant
emigration history despite longstanding poverty. Also, most
international immigration flows from the global South to the global
North are not made up by the poorest of the poor, but, generally by
professionals. In addition, there are countries with high levels of job
creation that continue to witness emigration on a large scale.
The reasons and promoters for migration are not only embodied
within the country of origin. Instead, they are rooted within the
broader geopolitical and global dynamics. Significant evidence of
geographic migration patterns suggests that receiving countries become
home to immigrants from the receiving country's zone of influence. Then,
immigration is but a fundamental component of the process of capitalist
expansion, market penetration, and globalization. There are systematic
and structural relations between globalization and immigration.
The emergence of a global economy
has contributed both to the creation of potential emigrants abroad and
to the formation of economic, cultural, and ideological links between
industrialized and developing countries that later serve as bridges for
the international migration. For example, the same set of circumstances
and processes that have promoted the location of factories and offices
abroad have also contributed to the creation of large supply of low-wage
jobs for which immigrant workers constitute a desirable labor supply.
Moreover, the decline of manufacturing jobs and the growth of the
service sector, key drivers of the globalization of production, have
transformed western economies’ occupational and income structure.
Unlike the manufacturing sector, which traditionally supplied
middle-income jobs and competitive benefits, the majority of service
jobs are either extremely well-paid or extremely poorly paid, with
relatively few jobs in the middle-income range. Many of the jobs lack
key benefits such as health insurance. Sales representatives, restaurant
wait staff, administrative assistants, and custodial workers are among
the growth occupations.
Finally, the fact that the major growth sectors rather than
declining sectors are generating the most low-wage jobs shows that the
supply of such jobs will continue to increase for the predictable
future. The entry of migrant workers will similarly continue to meet the
demand. In turn, this inflow provides the raw material out of which
transnational communities emerge.
