Modern Society and Solidarity

Abstract

Solidarity is one of the central concepts shaping political and normative communication in Germany. At the same time, solidarity has different meanings. The distinction between active charity, assistance in the context of local reciprocity and the services provided by large organisations and institutions to protect against social risks is blurred. As the political culture in Germany has internalised misconceptions of solidarity, social processes of institutionalisation and legalisation appear increasingly morally questionable. In this context, non-legalised solidarity and non-legalised mutual support in small social groups are considered morally superior. Solidarity as a descriptive structural concept and prescriptive structural principle for the political-normative orientation of large-scale, anonymous interdependencies, on the other hand, has a hard time being recognised as solidarity and repeatedly attracts criticism. The article »Modern Society and Solidarity« presents a typology of understandings of solidarity that reveals the different ways in which the concept of solidarity is used. It also discusses the ›discovery‹ of solidarity in the 19th century as an empirically and normatively oriented scientific concept. Selected theoretical approaches of French solidarism that have influenced Catholic social teaching are discussed. The emergence of highly labour-intensive and functionally differentiated modern mass societies is presented as a plausible background for understanding solidarity. This could help to redefine an often misunderstood concept and establish it as a normative concept in the political arena, where it is undoubtedly needed.