Amitai Etzioni: How to Build a Good Global Society
According to him the whole world is in the process of embracing Western values such as personal dignity and individual liberty.
However, what this view neglects is that the "East", where Islamic, Asian, or Judaic belief systems hold sway, brings several key values of its own to the global dialogue. While the Western position is centred on the individual, the focus of the Eastern cultures tends to be a strongly ordered community.
The East's core tenets are not individual rights, but social obligations; not liberty, but submission to a higher purpose or authority. The East is often accused of lacking respect for rights and liberty, but the West is criticized likewise for its materialistic societies which have lost social cohesion.
Thus, the East too has something in great abundance which the West lacks, and not merely the other way around. A new normative synthesis is needed if we are to develop better international relations and a good international society.
In communitarian terms a good society is marked by an enduring balance of autonomy and social order. On the one hand, its members' individual rights, liberties, and preferences are respected, and on the other hand, members must live up to their obligations to one another and to the common good. These duties, however, are not enforced by state power but are based on moral persuasion and informal controls. In a good society the members have internalized what is expected of them.
An imbalanced society, on the other hand, either tends to generate anti-social behavior if norms and roles are lacking, or is susceptible to forms of authoritarian suppression if autonomy is neglected. This communitarian idea of a good society implies a global dimension.
Even if nations vary significantly in their interpretations of its nature, a global model of a good society will continue to evolve gradually, and one that many nations will favor.
A good global society must combine respect for individual rights with a commitment to the common good, political democracy, and law and order. Currently, while the West is "exporting" a model that reflects its community and authority deficits, the Eastern model suffers from a severe autonomy deficit.
Both West and East tend to hand on only one half of what could make a good society if the two elements were synthesized.
In order to develop a normative synthesis both sides should adopt a "service learning" approach. This concept centralizes recognition of the Other in intercultural contacts. It calls on public leaders and elected officials to approach the world with a deep conviction that they, their nation, and their ideology do not have a monopoly on what is good.
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