Amitai Etzioni - Critical Response To Etzioni

Critical Response To Etzioni

In Simon Prideaux's "From Organisational Theory to the New Communitarium of Amitai Etzioni," he argues that Etzioni's communitarian methods are based upon earlier functionalist definitions of organisations. This is because his methodology fails to address any possible contradictions within the socio-economic foundations of society. Also Etzioni's communitarian analysis uses a methodology which existed before the development of an organisational theory. According to Prideaux, Etzioni has taken the methodological influence of structural-functionalism beyond the realms of its organisational branch and fabricated it into a solution to solve the problems of modern society. Etzioni's arguments on the creation of a new communitarian society is restricted to the strengths and weaknesses he witnesses in the American society in which he has lived since the 1950s. This makes his "new Communitarian thinking" a narrow-mindedly American one. It "neglects and denies the importance of differences within communities and among communities in different countries." Thus, Etzioni makes the mistake in suggesting that only single identities or homogeneous communities exist. Prideaux calls Etzioni guilty of imposing his Americanized version of community on the rest of the western world. For arguments that Etzioni's concept of community is too vague to be used, see Elizabeth Frazer's The Problems of Communitarian Politics: Unity and Conflict. For a critical overview of The Active Society, see Warren Breed's The Self-Guiding Society. For an evaluation of Etzioni's functionalism, see David Sciulli's Etzioni's Critical Functionalism: Communitarian Origins and Principles.