States and Localities: A Comment on Robert Nisbet's Communitarianism

Robert Nisbet, like important communitarians writing today, failed to consider the role of states in maintaining vigorous associational life at the local level. This omission is puzzling at first but is in fact a straightforward reflection of identifiable philosophical commitments and intellectual instincts. The omission is important to Nisbet's thinking in part because without intermediate structures between the national government and localities, it is unlikely that local communities can perform the significant functions that Nisbet envisioned. The failure to take full account of federalism also helps to explain why, despite Nisbet's dire descriptions and predictions, the United States maintains significant associational life even in the face of a nationalized political community. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.