Collectivism (disambiguation)

Collectivism is a cultural viewpoint that is characterized by emphasis on cohesiveness among individuals and prioritization of the group over the individual. Individuals or groups that subscribe to a collectivist worldview tend to find common values and goals particularly salient^[1] and demonstrate greater orientation toward in-group than toward out-group.^[2] The term "in-group" is thought to be defined more diffusely for collectivist individuals to include societal units ranging from the nuclear family to a religious or racial/ethnic group.^[3]^[4] In a collectivist society, individuals recognize their personal goals as subordinate to the goals they attribute to the collective body with which they most readily identify.^[5] In addition, a collectivist attributes the collective body with a superconscious ability to provide its individuals a sense of security. Meanwhile, the individualist recognizes any collective body's ability to provide security as dependent on individuals' sacrifices, actions that would only be motivated by furtherance of their own personal goals. They realize that peace, security, and strong relationships start with conscious choice, which only exists on the individual level. Collectivists are united by an unwillingness to risk action as an individual, leaving them to the mercy of their chance circumstance.^[6]^{[citation needed]}

Throughout society, there have been many contributions that have aided in the early development of the ideas of collectivism. The idea came about through the communalism of small villages and religious groups. In turn, these collectivist developments have led to different beliefs and ideologies that make up the term collectivism as a whole.^{[citation needed]}

Origin

The German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies described an early model of collectivism and individualism using the terms Gemeinschaft (community) and Gesellschaft (society).^[7] Gemeinschaft relationships, in which communalism is prioritized, were thought to be characteristic of small, rural village communities. An anthropologist, Redfield (1941) echoed this notion in work contrasting folk society with urban society.^[8]

Max Weber (1930) contrasted collectivism and individualism through the lens of religion, believing that Protestants were more individualistic and self-reliant compared to Catholics, who endorsed hierarchical, interdependent relationships among people.^[9] Geert Hofstede (1980) was highly influential in ushering in an era of cross-cultural research making comparisons along the dimension of collectivism versus individualism. Hofstede conceptualized collectivism and individualism as part of a single continuum, with each cultural construct representing an opposite pole. The author characterized individuals that endorsed a high degree of collectivism as being embedded in their social contexts and prioritizing communal goals over individual goals.^[10]

Hofstede insights describes collectivism as: "Collectivism, represents a preference for a tightly-knit framework in society in which individuals can expect their relatives or members of a particular ingroup to look after them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty."^[11]

Historical perspectives

Collectivism in early Monasticism

Collectivism is discernible in the Rules of many early Catholic religious orders. These qualities are typically traced back to the common way of life as presented in the Acts of the Apostles. The highly popular and influential Rule of Saint Augustine, for example, stated: "The Scriptures tell us: ‘Love is not self-seeking.’ We understand this to mean: the common good takes precedence over the individual good, the individual good yields to the common good. Here again, you will know the extent of your progress as you enlarge your concern for the common interest instead of your own private interest; enduring love will govern all matters pertaining to the fleeting necessities of life" ^[12] There are many other examples^{[example needed]} of this found in the writings of the Fathers of the Church, religious rules, and the New Testament.^{[citation needed]}

Marxism–Leninism

Collectivism was an important part of Marxist–Leninist ideology in the Soviet Union, where it played a key part in forming the New Soviet man, willingly sacrificing his or her life for the good of the collective. Terms such as "collective" and "the masses" were frequently used in the official language and praised in agitprop literature, for example by Vladimir Mayakovsky (Who needs a "1") and Bertolt Brecht (The Decision, Man Equals Man).^[13]^[14]

Both Marx and Lenin had strong ideas centered around collectivism. Lenin thought the working-class people from all over the world needed to help each other out. He pushed the idea of the working-class working together as a whole, regardless of borders. That the proletariat of one country should help the proletariat of another. This is also why he was so upset when he was told the news of the first world war beginning and was so angry with the socialists of other countries for supporting it.^[15] Lenin wanted everyone to be on the same page to work towards the goal of forming a more collectivist Russia. Nearly all his ideas were strictly collectivist centered. Lenin was very much against individualism, as he was an anti-capitalist. He criticized placing too much importance on free enterprise and trade as well.^[16] Lenin was a collectivist through and through, as it goes hand and hand with the nature of socialism. He had lots of strong views in collectivism and very little concerning individualistic views. Marx was for “no private ownership of land [and] no right of inheritance,” which are two very individualistic ideas.^[17] Lenin’s biggest issues with individualism lay within capitalism and private property rights. Their disdain toward capitalism and property rights alone can sum up how they view the concept of individualism. His collectivist thoughts are shown plainly in this belief that he saw it was necessary for people to work together, collectively, towards a society consisting of these worker-owned firms, the cooperatives. According to Lenin, the Russian people were not making a strong enough effort to help build cooperatives and accused them of not taking advantage of the progress they made.^[18]

Collectivist Anarchism

Collectivist Anarchism deals with collectivism in a decentralized anarchistic system, in which people are paid off their surplus labor. Collectivist anarchism is contrasted with anarcho-communism, where wages would be abolished and where individuals would take freely from a storehouse of goods "to each according to his need". It is most commonly associated with Mikhail Bakunin, the anti-authoritarian sections of the International Workingmen's Association and the early Spanish anarchist movement.^[19]^[20]^[21]^[22]^[23]

Corporatism

Corporatism is sometimes seen as an ideology which relies on collectivist co-operation as one of its central components. The term is derived from the Latin corpus, or "human body", which in this case means that society should function like unto a body, through the means of loyalty to an individual's in-group or corpus. Collective bargaining is one example of corporatist economic principles.^[24] Often, state-sanctioned bargaining is considered collectivist.^[25]

Terminology and measurement

The construct of collectivism is represented in empirical literature under several different names. Most commonly, the term interdependent self-control is used.^[26] Other phrases used to describe the concept of collectivism-individualism include allocentrism-idiocentrism,^[27] collective-private self,^[28] as well as subtypes of collectivism-individualism (meaning, vertical and horizontal subtypes).^[29] Inconsistent terminology is thought to account for some of the difficulty in effectively synthesizing the empirical literature on collectivism.^[30]

Collectivist Cultures

A large percentage of the world's population is dominated by collectivist ideologies. Societies that highly value collectivism may be characterized by being those that contain a lower level of economic wealth. Many developing nations tend to be collectivists because this is an impactful method in which members within those societies are able to grant each other an extra layer of support; which assures the population’s wellbeing.

Many countries on the South American, African, and Asian continents are strongly influenced by collectivism. For example, China is a well-know collectivistic society. In China, a high value is placed on being united, and individuals are encouraged to conform; this is similar to most other collectivist countries.^[31] Another collectivist country is India. In India, loyalty to one’s family is highly emphasized. Often, individuals make marital decisions based on the approval of one’s family. For example, many Indian individuals will marry a person based on their family's interest rather than their own. ^[32]

References

^ Schwartz, S. H. (1990). "Individualism–collectivism: Critique and proposed refinements". Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 21 (2): 139–157. doi:10.1177/0022022190212001. S2CID 146606056.
^ Oyserman, D. (1993). "The lens of personhood: Viewing the self, others, and conflict in a multicultural society". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 65 (5): 993–1009. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.65.5.993. hdl:2027.42/89930.
^ Hui, C. H. (1988). "Measurement of individualism–collectivism". Journal of Research in Personality. 22: 17–36. doi:10.1016/0092-6566(88)90022-0.
^ Triandis, H. C. (1995). Individualism and Collectivism. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.^{[ISBN missing]}^{[page needed]}
^ Westjohn, Stanford A.; Magnusson, Peter; Franke, George R.; Peng, Yi (March 2022). "Trust Propensity Across Cultures: The Role of Collectivism". Journal of International Marketing. 30 (1): 1–17. doi:10.1177/1069031X211036688. ISSN 1069-031X.
^ Wang, Haobi; Lou, Xiaobin (January 2022). "A meta-analysis on the social relationship outcome of being compassionate towards oneself: The moderating role of individualism-collectivism". Personality and Individual Differences. 184: 111162. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2021.111162.
^ F. Tönnies (1957). Community and association. Harper Torchbooks.^{[ISBN missing]}^{[page needed]}
^ Redfield, Robert (1941). The folk culture of Yucatán. University of Chicago Press.^{[ISBN missing]}^{[page needed]}
^ M. Weber (1930). The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. New York: Routledge.^{[ISBN missing]}^{[page needed]}
^ Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's consequences. Beverly Hills: Sage.^{[ISBN missing]}^{[page needed]}
^ Insights, Hofstede. "National Culture". hi.hofstede-insights.com. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
^ "Rule of St. Augustine".
^ Overy, Richard (2004). The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia. pp. 301. ISBN 978-039302030-4.
^ Horn, Eva (2006). "Actors/Agents: Bertolt Brecht and the Politics of Secrecy". Grey Room. 24: 38–55. doi:10.1162/grey.2006.1.24.38. S2CID 57572547.
^ Kishtainy, Niall (2017). A Little History of Economics. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300206364.
^ "On Cooperation". www.marxists.org. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
^ Warsh, David (2006). Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06636-4.
^ "On Cooperation". www.marxists.org. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
^ Blonna, Alex (1977). Marxism and Anarchist Collectivism in the International Workingman's Association, 1864–1872. Blonna.^{[ISBN missing]}^{[page needed]}
^ Esenwein, George Richard (1989). Anarchist Ideology and the Working-class Movement in Spain, 1868–1898. University of California Press. p. 110. ISBN 978-0520063983.
^ Martin, Benjamin (1990). The Agony of Modernization: Labor and Industrialization in Spain. Cornell University Press. p. 88. ISBN 978-0875461656.
^ Ackelsberg, Martha A. (1991) [2005]. Free Women of Spain: Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation of Women. AK Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-1902593968.
^ Turcato, Davide. Making Sense of Anarchism: Errico Malatesta's Experiments with Revolution, 1889–1900. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0230301795, OCLC 915485427^{[page needed]}
^ Calmfors, Lars; Driffill, John; Honkapohja, Seppo; Giavazzi, Francesco (April 1988). "Bargaining Structure, Corporatism and Macroeconomic Performance". Economic Policy. 3 (6): 13. doi:10.2307/1344503. JSTOR 1344503.
^ Grunig, James E. (January 2000). "Collectivism, Collaboration, and Societal Corporatism as Core Professional Values in Public Relations". Journal of Public Relations Research. 12 (1): 23–48. doi:10.1207/S1532754XJPRR1201_3. ISSN 1062-726X. S2CID 154794020.
^ Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). "Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation". Psychological Review. 98 (2): 224–253. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.320.1159. doi:10.1037/0033-295x.98.2.224.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Triandis, H. C. (1983). Allocentric vs. idiocentric social behavior: A major cultural difference between Hispanics and mainstream (Technical reports). Champaign: Department of Psychology, University of Illinois.
^ Trafimow, D., Triandis, H. C., & Goto, S. G. (1991). "Some tests of the distinction between the private self and the collective self". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 60 (5): 649–665. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.60.5.649.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Triandis, H. C., Bhawuk, D. P. S., & Gelfand, M. J. (1995). "Horizontal and vertical dimensions of individualism and collectivism: A theoretical and measurement refinement". Cross-Cultural Research. 29 (3): 240–275. doi:10.1177/106939719502900302. S2CID 143852368.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Taras; et al. (2014). "Opposite Ends of the Same Stick? Multi-Method Test of the Dimensionality of Individualism and Collectivism" (PDF). Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 45 (2): 213–245. doi:10.1177/0022022113509132. hdl:11693/12980. S2CID 9349054.
^ Ma, Zhenzhong; Huang, Yufang; Wu, Jie; Dong, Weiwei; Qi, Liyun (2 September 2014). Manlio Del Giudice, Prof.; Vincenzo Maggioni, Prof. (eds.). "What matters for knowledge sharing in collectivistic cultures? Empirical evidence from China". Journal of Knowledge Management. 18 (5): 1004–1019. doi:10.1108/JKM-06-2014-0252. ISSN 1367-3270.
^ Shah, Grishma (5 June 2009). "The impact of economic globalization on work and family collectivism in India". Journal of Indian Business Research. 1 (2/3): 95–118. doi:10.1108/17554190911005318. ISSN 1755-4195.