ABSTRACT
Karl Popper never participated in the controversy between liberals and communitarians, and only rarely do they refer to his social philosophy in their debate. Communitarianism developed in the 1980s in the United States and Canada as a criticism of liberalism, especially in response to the political philosophy of John Rawls and his book A Theory of Justice. For communitarians, liberals fail to recognize the importance of certain traditions, virtues, and values for democracy. Communitarians advance the criticism that for liberals, self-government and participation are merely means toward ends such as the rule of law, equality, or individual freedom. The liberal commitment to individual freedom, focusing on the right to live one’s life according to one’s own ideas, is opposed to the communitarian emphasis on community-oriented behaviour supported by the state and controlled by the community.
