Differences between Individualism and Communitarians are as follows:
The debate between individualism and communitarianism developed and became central to political theory during the 1980s with the publication of Michael Sandel’s Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982). In this book, Sandel develops one of the most forceful critiques of Rawlsian liberalism, the statement of which is found in John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice (1971).
Since then, this debate has continued in one way or the other to inform a great deal of political theory. In fact, some of the major developments and concerns of contemporary political theory are based on arguments which emanate from this debate. At the center of the debate between individualism and Communitarianism is the question: should just state be constructed from the standpoint of how to foster the well being of individuals or from the standpoint of how to realize an ideal community?
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Is political reality shaped by decisions and actions of individuals, defined as persons standing at a distance (or separate) from community bonds or is it shaped by social beings whose identity and behavior is defined by social groups/communities to which they belong? In other words, is the basic unit of political analysis the individual or the community? In responding to this question, individualists and communitarians hold different and apparently conflicting positions.
While the individualists see political reality as being shaped by decisions and actions of free and rights bearing individuals, communitarians emphasize the relationship between the person and the community and see this relationship to be the basis of politics. This debate may then be characterized as one between those who favor individual rights and autonomy and those who emphasize the bonds of community in political life.