Community, Solidarity and Belonging
Levels of Community and their Normative Significance

This book systematically explores the relationship between the state, and different levels of community.

Andrew Mason (Author)

9780521637282, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 27 July 2000

256 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.41 kg

'Andrew Mason has written an illuminating and wonderfully stimulating book about important and difficult issues. Students of political thoery, philosophy, and international relations should read it not merely with interest, but with profit.' Richard Dagger, Arizona State University

Despite the frequency with which the term 'community' is used, it is hard to find any comprehensive exploration of the nature and value of community. This book tries to remedy this omission whilst taking seriously the idea that community can be of different kinds and can exist at different levels, and that these levels and kinds may come into conflict with one another. It focuses on the question of what kind of community is valuable at the level of the state. It then explores the limits that ideals of political community place upon cultural diversity within the state, and the limits that, in turn, ideals of global community place upon the self-determination of political communities. This book will be of interest to students of political theory, philosophy and international relations.

Introduction
Part I. Community and its Value: 1. The nature of community
2. The value of community
Part II. Political Community in a Culturally Diverse Society: 3. Liberal political community and illiberal minorities
4. Republican political community
5. National community: the benefits of a sense of belonging together
6. Multicultural education for an inclusive political community
Part III. Political Community and the Limits of Global Community: 7. The ideal of global community and the principle of non-intervention
8. Political communities, global solidarity and the state system
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Philosophy [HP]