Etzioni, Amitai (born 1929)

German-born US sociologist. Elected president of the American Sociological Association in 1994, he was influential in his work on common values and social discipline. Etzioni's early work on how organizations control their members, change, survive, and are integrated into the larger society led him to become senior advisor to the White House on industrial policy 1979–80.

In 1993 Etzioni founded the Communitarian Movement, a network of academics who emphasize common ethical values and the community's right to police the behaviour of individuals.

His ideas about social discipline for the common good have influenced both Republican and Democrat politicians, including Bill Clinton. His works include Social Problems (1975), The Moral Dimension (1988), The Spirit of Community (1993), The Monochrome Society (2001), and The New Golden Rule (1996). Later books explore foreign policy and include From Empire to Community: A New Approach to International Relations (2004), and Security First: For A Muscular, Moral Foreign Policy (2007).

He was educated at Hebrew University, Israel and at the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his PhD in sociology in 1958. He was a professor at Columbia University, New York; George Washington University, Washington, DC; and Harvard Business School, Cambridge, Massachusetts.