collectivism

6 Key excerpts on "collectivism"

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  Money, Enterprise and Income Distribution

  Towards a macroeconomic theory of capitalism

  • John Smithin(Author)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  3 (This, in turn, seems to be why Keynes was keen to stress the ultimate compatibility of macroeconomic policy with this tradition, as already indicated.)

  collectivism on the other hand, is the political theory that stresses identification with the group or collective in politics, which can be variously defined along the lines of class, party, race, gender, nationality, religious affiliation or any other such line of demarcation. On this view, the individual should subordinate private interests to group solidarity, be prepared to make sacrifices on behalf of the group, accept the opinions and values of the group as a whole as their own and so on. The politics that arises will then clearly be group politics, involving the assertions of the rights and/or grievances of certain groups/collectives in society versus those of other groups, rather than individual rights and freedoms.

  Clearly, it would be possible to put both a positive and negative spin on either of these stances. The individualist can be portrayed as self-reliant, independently minded, principled and so on, but also as selfish and uncaring of the sufferings of others. The collectivist can be portrayed as altruistic, but also subject to “group think”, lacking in independent judgment and willing to discriminate against, or allow individual injustices towards, all persons who are not part of the favored group. Perhaps somewhat ironically, however (“ironically” only because of her general reputation as being well to the left of the political spectrum), Joan Robinson (1962, 11) very neatly sums up what must be the obvious conclusion to any such political debate, as follows: “A society of unmitigated egoists would soon knock itself to pieces; a perfectly altruistic individual would soon starve.” (Many such telling one-liners are actually scattered throughout Robinson’s work – another line from the same volume that seems to “sum it all up” on a slightly different issue, is the classic: “the misery of being exploited by the capitalists is nothing to the misery of not being exploited at all”.)4

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  The Wiley Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences, Clinical, Applied, and Cross-Cultural Research

  • (Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  The members of this group strive to “be the best” and favor a democratic government with a capitalist style economy (i.e. an economic system operated by private ownership and profit) (Berry et al., 1997; Triandis, 1995). Therefore, one’s status equates to fortune and success. Resources are distributed according to rank and inequality is accepted within society (Berry et al., 1997). Conceptualization of collectivism collectivism is a social pattern that consists of individuals closely interconnected in a group. The collective group determines a person’s values, behaviors, needs, norms, and identity. Because collectivists are more likely to identify as a group, they tend to use collec-tive pronouns. The connections between group members exist since birth and are integral in collectivist societies. Each member has specific duties that contribute to the mechanism of interrelated groups and the larger holistic society (Berry et al., 1997; Triandis, 1995). Members adhere to social norms in collectivist societies whereby worldview is shaped by the group’s mentality and perspectives of the world. Group members depend on each other for survival, protecting each member and are each devoted and obliged to the group (Berry et al., 1997). Hence, members take into consideration the effect of one’s actions on group members. Interaction between group members is more valuable than privacy (Berry et al., 1997; Triandis, 1995). Features and components of collectivism include the beliefs that the interest of the group is more important than individual interest, individual freedom is dependent on the ­ConceptualiuplCo C o onlilntual ism uon ­Caac nplil ism 289 group, and social norms are defined by the group and not individual pleasure seeking. collectivism tends to limit emotionality and creativity in its members. Moreover, collec-tivist societies value dependence, hierarchy, courtesy, camaraderie, and familial modesty among members of the community.

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  Political Solidarity

  • Sally J. Scholz(Author)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Penn State University Press

    (Publisher)

  Cooperation connotes a joint activity that puts solidarity in the literature on collective responsibility. In doing so, however, we must avoid attributing too much agency to the group while also avoiding methodological individualism. The cooperative activity of political solidarity is both individual action and collective action simultaneously. Cooperation captures that balance because it calls forth individual input into group action as well as the dynamic of action done in concert with others, simultaneously, or as part of an overarch- ing effort. Political solidarity challenges how moral theorists tend to discuss collective action primarily because the focus has traditionally been on wheth- er groups could be held responsible for the actions of some or all of their members (e.g., French 1972), whether a group of individuals could be held responsible for failing to organize themselves into a formal organization with decision-making procedures (e.g., Held 1970), and whether the actions of the group are reducible to the actions of individuals. There are essentially two types of collective action at work in solidarity. The first is the situation where multiple individuals see some action that ought to be taken and one or more of those individuals act in such a way that the whole group might be called responsible (and might benefit). The second is when the action taken must be a joint action; that is, only the combined/coordinated efforts of all members will result in the desired ef- fect (cf. Bates 1971, 347). Regardless of the type of collective action, being in solidarity with others means that one is to some extent interdependent with others.

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  The SAGE Handbook of Comparative Politics

  • Todd Landman, Neil Robinson, Todd Landman, Neil Robinson(Authors)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  collectivism means that people see others not as autonomous individuals but as group-members in the first place (Triandis, 1995). When group categorization dominates peo-ple’s views of others, people almost auto-matically start privileging members of their own group and discriminating members of other groups (Tajfel, 1970). collectivism in this sense is a form of group-egoism that hinders the creation of solidarities across group boundaries. Individualism, by contrast, means that one does not consider others as members of groups but as autonomous indi-viduals in the first place. This mode of orien-tation provides a common ground – human individuality – on which one can place all people equally. This is why individualism and altruism go together with stronger self-expression values (Deutsch et al., 2008). SEV10 SEV09 SEV08 SEV07 SEV06 SEV05 SEV04 SEV03 SEV02 SEV01 0.28 0.29 0.30 0.31 0.32 0.33 0.34 0.35 0.36 0.37 0.38 0.39 0.40 Extent of Overrating Democracy Extent of Underrating Democracy Data Source : WVS V, constant set of post-industrial societies, weighted to equal size. SEV: Self-expression values ordered in increasing intensity from 01 to 10. 0.30 0.28 0.26 0.24 0.22 0.20 0.18 0.16 0.14 0.12 0.10 0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0.32 Figure 16.4 Self-expression values related to the over- and underrating of democracy Note: Self-expression values measured as indicated in the note of Figure 16.2. Citizens have been asked to rate their country’s level of democracy. Citizens’ ratings of their country’s democracy levels are related to the expert ratings of Freedom House (after having standardized both ratings into the same scale range), such that (a) when a citizen’s rating exceeds the expert rating the Extent of Overrating has been measured and (b) when the citizen’s rating falls short of the expert rating the Extent of Underrating has been measured. Same countries included as in Figures 16.2 and 16.3.

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  Thinking Collectively

  Social Policy, Collective Action and the Common Good

  • Spicker, Paul, Paul Spicker(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Policy Press

    (Publisher)

  As a moral position, individualism is built around the defence of each and every person: individuals have rights, and every person matters. There is a very strong case to emphasise the role of individualism in the protection of individual dignity, rights and the value of every human being.

  In the consideration of collectivism, by contrast, the strongest arguments for a collective approach are substantive, and that is where this book begins. Substantive collectivism is the idea that we live not as ‘individuals’, but as the members of social groups, like families, neighbourhoods and communities, and that many of our actions are done together with others in organisations, such as schools and businesses, and social institutions. People are what they are, and who they are, because they live and have relationships with other people. Families, households, communities, organisations and nations can all be treated as social units, which have interests, concerns and priorities that might be different from those of the individuals who make them up.

  Methodological collectivism looks for explanations and patterns of behaviour not in the actions of individual human beings, but in the actions of groups – including classes, ethnic groups and societies taken as a whole. This is the characteristic approach of sociology; it also has an important pragmatic purpose in the development of public policy.

  Moral collectivism begins from the premise that collective social groups – families, businesses, institutions, governments and countries – are moral agents; that they have rights and responsibilities, that groups as well as individuals can take moral action, and that the morality of their actions can sensibly be assessed in those terms. Collective groups bind people to each other in networks that govern their interactions with each other, mutual responsibility and social roles.

  collectivism is not a single idea, or a unified doctrine, any more than individualism is. These are perspectives, not ideologies. They lead to different interpretations of social, moral and political issues; they suggest various approaches to problems; they emphasise alternative values. They might well underpin some systems of belief, but they are not systems of belief in their own right. It makes more sense to see them as ways of thinking. This book begins from a dualist position: it is perfectly possible to be individualist in relation to some issues and collectivist about others. But collectivism is based on the perspective of groups of people, rather than individuals, and it is only from the perspective of the group that it can be adequately understood.

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  Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology

  Volume Two

  • Paul A M Van Lange, Arie W Kruglanski, E Tory Higgins, Paul A M Van Lange, Arie W Kruglanski, E Tory Higgins, Author(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  51 A Theory of Individualism and collectivism H a r r y C . T r i a n d i s a n d M i c h e l e J . G e l f a n d ABSTRACT The evolution of individualism and collectivism theory and research is reviewed. The antecedents of collectivism–individualism can be found in the ecology, family structure, wealth distribution, demography, history, cultural diffusion, and situational conditions. The consequences of collectivism–individualism include differences in attention, attribution, cognition, emotion, motiva-tion, self-definitions, values, language use, and communication, as well as other kinds of social and organizational behavior. Applications of indi-vidualism and collectivism include improvements in conflict resolution, health, international relations, and cross-cultural training. THE EVOLUTION OF INDIVIDUALISM AND collectivism THEORY AND RESEARCH Culture is to society what memory is to indi-viduals (Kluckhohn, 1954). It consists of what “has worked” in the experience of a group of people so it was worth transmitting to peers and descendents. Another definition of culture was provided by anthropologist Redfield (1941): “Culture is shared under-standings made manifest in act and artifact.” In short, culture is shared behavior and shared human-made aspects of the society. Thus, it includes “practices” (the way things are done here) and “values” (the way things should be done). These older definitions of culture focus on what is outside the person (e.g., do people drive to the right or left). The more recent definitions also stress what is inside the person (e.g., is the self independent or interdependent of in-groups). Almost every aspect of psychological functioning is influ-enced, to some extent, by culture. Thus, it is best to view culture and psychology as making each other up (Cole, 1996; Shweder, 1990). Cultures differ in a myriad of ways. By far, the most well-researched dimension of cul-ture to date is individualism and collectivism .

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