Collectivism is a set of ideas, principles and approaches that begin from the recognition of the collective aspects of social life. Where individualism views actions, decisions and policies from the perspective of independent, single actors, collectivism focuses on social groups, communities and the wider society.

In Reclaiming individualism, I made a case for social and government action in order to protect and enhance the conditions of individuals. The argument of that book was based on a distinctive analytical framework, outlining three discrete approaches to individualism: moral, methodological and substantive. Substantive individualism is based in the belief that all actions are the actions of individuals, and that every social or political action is taken by individual human beings. Methodological individualism reviews economic, social and political arguments as if they are based in the decisions of people one by one; the actions of groups are understood as a whole series of individual actions, added together. (This is the characteristic approach of economic theory.) The case for methodological individualism has been argued with some force, but whether it applies depends on circumstances; sometimes it works, sometimes it does not.

The most compelling arguments for individualism are moral. As a moral position, individualism is built around the defence of each and every person: individuals have rights, and every person matters. There is a very strong case to emphasise the role of individualism in the protection of individual dignity, rights and the value of every human being.

In the consideration of collectivism, by contrast, the strongest arguments for a collective approach are substantive, and that is where this book begins. Substantive collectivism is the idea that we live not as ‘individuals’, but as the members of social groups, like families, neighbourhoods and communities, and that many of our actions are done together with others in organisations, such as schools and businesses, and social institutions. People are what they are, and who they are, because they live and have relationships with other people. Families, households, communities, organisations and nations can all be treated as social units, which have interests, concerns and priorities that might be different from those of the individuals who make them up.

Methodological collectivism looks for explanations and patterns of behaviour not in the actions of individual human beings, but in the actions of groups – including classes, ethnic groups and societies taken as a whole.