Walzer is usually identified as one of the leading proponents of thecommunitarian position in political theory, along withAlasdair MacIntyre andMichael J. Sandel. Like Sandel and MacIntyre, Walzer is not completely comfortable with this label.[6] However, he has long argued that political theory must be grounded in the traditions and culture of particular societies, and has long opposed what he sees to be the excessive abstraction of political philosophy.
His most important intellectual contributions includeJust and Unjust Wars (1977), a revitalization ofjust war theory that insists on the importance of "ethics" in wartime while eschewingpacifism;[7] the theory of "complex equality", which holds that the metric of just equality is not some single material or moral good, but rather thategalitarian justice demands that each good be distributed according to its social meaning, and that no good (like money or political power) be allowed to dominate or distort the distribution of goods in other spheres;[8][9] and an argument that justice is primarily a moral standard within particular nations and societies, not one that can be developed in a universalized abstraction.
InOn Toleration, he describes various examples of (and approaches to)toleration in various settings, including multinational empires such asRome; nations in past and current-day international society; "consociations" such asSwitzerland;nation-states such asFrance; and immigrant societies such as theUnited States. He concludes by describing a "post-modern" view, in which cultures within an immigrant nation have blended and inter-married to the extent that toleration becomes an intra-familial affair.[10]
Walzer was first employed in 1962 in the politics department atPrinceton University. He stayed there until 1966, when he moved to the government department atHarvard. He taught at Harvard until 1980, when he became a permanent faculty member in the School of Social Science at theInstitute for Advanced Study.[3]
In 1971, Walzer taught a semester-long course at Harvard withRobert Nozick called "Capitalism and Socialism". The course was a debate between the two philosophers: Nozick's side is delineated inAnarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), and Walzer's side is expressed in hisSpheres of Justice (1983), in which he argues for "complex equality".[11]
Walzer is married to Judith Borodovko Walzer. They are parents of two daughters: Sarah Esther Walzer (born 1961) and Rebecca Leah Walzer (born 1966). His grandchildren are Joseph and Katya Barrett and Jules and Stefan Walzer-Goldfeld.
Zivile Gesellschaft und amerikanische Demokratie (Rotbuch Verlag, 1992)ISBN3-596-13077-8 (collection of essays in German collection; the title translates as "Civil Society and American Democracy")
The Jewish Political Tradition, Vol. I: Authority. co-edited withMenachem Lorberbaum, Noam Zohar, and Yair Lorberbaum (Yale University Press, 2000)ISBN0-300-09428-0
Exilic Politics in the Hebrew Bible (Mohr Siebeck, 2001, in German)ISBN3-16-147543-7
War, Politics, and Morality (Ediciones Paidos (es), 2001, in Spanish)ISBN84-493-1167-5
The Jewish Political Tradition, Vol. II: Membership. co-edited with Menachem Lorberbaum, Noam Zohar, and Yair Lorberbaum (Yale University Press, 2003)ISBN978-0-300-09428-2
Micha Odenheimer,A “Connected Critic”, Micha Odenheimer speaks with an individual who has carved out a space for himself as a left-wing supporter of Israel,Eretz Acheret Magazine
For an analysis of communitarianism see:Gad Barzilai,Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities (Ann Arbor:University of Michigan Press, 2003)
