Associationalism

Associationalism (also: Associative Democracy) is a political project where "human welfare and liberty are both best served when as many of the affairs of a society as possible are managed by voluntary and democratically self-governing associations." Associationalism "gives priority to freedom in its scale of values, but it contends that such freedom can only be pursued effectively if individuals join with their fellows"

Associationalism is a European political theory, stemming from 19th and early 20th century social and political theorists from the continent. In France, such political thinkers as de Tocqueville, Proudhon, Durkheim, and Duguit. In England, such pluralists as Cole, Figgis, Laski, Barker, and Maitland. The theory provides an alternative to the previously popular doctrines of state-centered and collectivist ideals which had all but dominated twentieth-century politics: Western social democracy and Eastern bloc Marxist–Leninism.

's idea of associationalism “...stressed volunteerism, community spirit and independent associational life as protections against the domination of society by the state, and indeed as a counterbalance which helped to keep the state accountable and effective”. In Tocqueville’s vision then, economic freedom fosters greed, which engenders political apathy, which results in excessive individualism and passive reliance on the state. This political apathy will in turn result in the almost inevitable growth of government if left unchecked by associationalism. Thus, Tocqueville predicted that “It is easy to see the time coming in which men will be less and less able to produce, by each alone, the commonest bare necessities of life. The tasks of government must therefore perpetually increase, and its efforts to cope with them must spread its net ever wider. The more government takes the place of associations, the more will individuals lose the idea of forming associations and need the government to come to their help. That is a vicious cycle of cause and effect”.

Associational democracy is, in essence, both a political structure and system of relations with the goal of easing pluralist social negotiation and priorities. It became an important aspect of public policy, countering previous laissez-faire traditions. Critics considered laissez-faire, which essentially equated to liberal individualism, as not conducive to the fostering of upward mobility in society. Associationalism, as opposed to liberal individualism, embodies a deliberate commitment to social cooperation as well as public well-being.

"Association....grew out of a sense of difference; for the middle class, it meant crossing class lines to bring together people of diverse identities and conditions". According to David Lewis, during the late 19th and early 20th century the new middle class required “...sanctioned private accumulation underwritten by a state which maintained legal order and stability"· As a result, the state needed to become powerful enough to maintain order, but not so strong as to become oppressive; neither laissez-faire nor statist. Finding this balance between transgressing autonomy and dangerous accumulation of power could prove difficult, and associationalism appeared to be a possible solution.

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