Social discontent has focused strongly on the loss of community life. Differentiation and polarization are widely deplored. Communitarianism, for a while, gave promise of healing the breach. Its program of restoring communal bonds by shoring up the moral, social, and political fabric attracted support of major political figures in all parts of the world. However, after its early startling success, the momentum proved to be short lived. The movement's disinclination to confront issues head-on, together with its reliance on personal exhortation rather than social reform, has led to decline. More recent approaches have opened up avenues of social reform. Redirecting emphasis on issues such as the widening inequality gap, the rise of the underclass, plus “the disappearance of work” could well bring Communitarianism back to the fore.
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