ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the political philosophy of radical moral communitarianism, devised by this author, which, while accepting much of the revitalizing modernity agenda proposed by ultra-realism – certainly the determining context of the economy - is nevertheless concerned at the failings of most previous attempts at radical social change, via revolution and the invariably subsequent disastrous one-party political state. It thus provides an alternative political agenda which can be conceptualized in the context of liberal democratic politics. It takes as its starting point the work of Emile Durkheim and his observations on the moral component of the division of labour in society, and it is proposed that this perspective provides the theoretical foundations of a ‘new’ social-democratic egalitarianism: a radical moral communitarianism which actively promotes the rights and responsibilities of both individuals and communities in the context of an equal division of labour. The latter is a highly significant element which deviates significantly from the mainstream version of communitarianism promoted in the US since the 1980s and which was to be embraced but distorted in the UK by New Labour with its enthusiasm for a strong dictatorial central state apparatus with which to enforce its agenda.
