May 23, 2011 10:09AM # Communitarians and Libertarians By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) --- SHARE Communitarian “guru” Amitai Etzioni [debated](https://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/moral-implications-deficits-debt-budget-battles-ahead) Roger Pilon at Cato two weeks ago. Also me, [18 years ago](http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/53430-1). And last week he had two postings at the Encyclopedia Britannica blog. I offer some thoughts on individualism, communitarianism, and implausible misrepresentations of libertarianism [at the Britannica today](https://www.cato.org/commentary/individualism-community). > When I hear communitarians like Etzioni describe the libertarian view of individualism, I wonder if they’ve ever read any libertarian writing other than a Classic Comics edition of Ayn Rand.… > > There’s no conflict between individualism and community. There’s a conflict between voluntary association and coerced association. And communitarians dance around that conflict. Do you believe that “The libertarian perspective, put succinctly, begins with the assumption that individual agents are fully formed and their value preferences are in place prior to and outside of any society”? Of course not. Who would? [Read the Britannica column](https://www.cato.org/commentary/individualism-community) to find out who says you do. [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).