"A Land of Strangers": Communitarianism and the Rejuvenation of Intermediate Associations

Abstract

This Comment will analyze the symptoms and the root of what Robert Putnam has designated the "strange disappearance of Civic America," and then will examine the solutions that have been proposed by the Communitarian movement. Part II will discuss how intermediate organizations in society act as a buffer between the government and family- the most basic unit of society. Part III will discuss at length civic America's disappearance, proffering suggestions for the underlying cause of this recent phenomenon. Part IV of this Comment will review the background and briefly describe the importance of the high Court's opinion in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale. Part V will discuss how the impoverishment of our political discourse has been a significant factor in this strange disappearance. It will focus on the legal analysis the Court has used to justify its intrusion into intermediate associations via the First Amendment. Part VI will discuss the two competing interests courts have painstakingly endeavored to reconcile: freedom and equality. Part VII will then review the recent birth and blossoming of Communitarianism and the subtle impact it has had on both the legal and philosophical discourse of First Amendment litigation. Part VIII will conclude by suggesting how a synthesis of both our current First Amendment landscape and Communitarianism yields a remarkably workable picture for reinvigorating the remarkable diversity of American culture and rediscovering what de Tocqeville labeled "habits of the heart." It will propose that the rich diversity of American culture has been weakened by a judiciary marching, ironically, to the drumbeat of diversity, yet imposing a majoritarian uniformity nonetheless.