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One of the world's leading sociologists and most quoted intellectuals in America today, Amitai Etzioni has been the subject of numerous profiles in all the major media and has worked both with members of the Clinton Administration and Republican senators on social issues and policy. Now, in this important new book, he invites us to explore how a good society should operate and what values we must bring to our social interactions if we are to achieve stronger and more enduring community ties.As Etzioni has found in his years devoted to researching and studying the subject, the problem facing society today is that half the population is wary of order and morality, while the other half is suspicious of liberty, which is equated with permissiveness. In an in-depth analysis that masterfully cuts this Gordian knot, the author lays out how we can, indeed must, have both order and autonomy if we are to create a society in which communities and individuals can thrive. Recognizing that excessive morality and excessive liberty are each a dire threat to the health of society, Etzioni demonstrates how we have overreacted in recent years by assuming that there must be a tradeoff between morality and freedom. However, this need not be the case, because when order is largely based on moral commitments rather than on the law, and autonomy is regarded as a place in a social space, these two social virtues can reinforce each other.Using this framework, Etzioni studies the implications for the future of diversity in America, the implications for educating the next generation, and our relationships with other societies. He also explores the public policy implications of his observations and how governments, community groups and families can respond and grow.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Acknowledgments(p. xi)
• Preface: Virtue in a Free Society(p. xiii)
• 1 The Elements of a Good Society(p. 3)
• 2 Order and Autonomy?(p. 34)
• 3 The Fall and Rise of America(p. 58)
• 4 Sharing Core Values(p. 85)
• 5 The Moral Voice(p. 119)
• 6 The Implications of Human Nature(p. 160)
• 7 Pluralism Within Unity(p. 189)
• In Conclusion(p. 256)
• Notes(p. 259)
• Index(p. 307)

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Publishers Weekly Review

A leading communitarian thinker, sociologist Etzioni contends Americans have overemphasized individual rights in recent years. In his searching treatise, he seeks to restore an equilibrium between personal liberty and the common good, urging the diverse strands of America's social fabric to come together, to commit to a core of shared values that will help renew the family, schools and public institutions. Arguing that rights and responsibilities go hand in hand, he champions the two-parent family, national service involving voluntary participation in agencies such as the Peace Corps and Vista, a nationally standardized public school curriculum, community courts as alternatives to the official judicial system, schools as character-building agents and devolving federal functions to voluntary associations and other community bodies. Challenging liberals and conservatives alike, Etzioni, a professor at George Washington University, cuts through a welter of issues, from bicultural education to curbing alcohol abuse, in this timely contribution to the debate over what constitutes a good society. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Etzioni brings a sociologist's grasp of the tension between individuals and society, and liberty and social order, to the examination of community and morality in a democratic society. Contrasting his own communitarian perspective with the viewpoints of social conservatives and religious fundamentalists, the author seeks to construct a case for a largely voluntary communitarian order that does not impose morality on people and is not based on radical libertarianism. Instead, Etzioni argues for a position in the middle that relies on "a new golden rule" founded "on a profound commitment to moral order that is basically voluntary, and to a social order that is well balanced with socially secured autonomy." In doing so, he avoids some of the problems of other conservative social critics by emphasizing the importance of a socially constructed concept of morality and community. Etzioni also reviews and contrasts the insights of classical social theorists such as Tonnies, Durkheim, and Weber with modern proponents of social conservatism and libertarianism. However, a critical gap in the book is Etzioni's failure to integrate a discussion of the structure of power in capitalist society and its impact on morality. Despite this weakness, Etzioni's book offers a probing, albeit limited, analysis of community and morality from sociological perspective. All levels. P. Seybold; Indiana University-Bloomington