The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Amitai Etzioni.

CNN: Mars can wait. Oceans can't

"Most people will tell you that they are above-average drivers and stock investors, " says Amitai Etzioni, director of the Institute for communitarian policy studies at George Washington University.

FORBES: Nothing Comes Between Me and My SUV

Apart from Sedgefield and Mr Clinton, the other main influence on Mr Blair came from the communitarian ideas of the philosopher John Macmurray and later thinkers, such as the American sociologist, Amitai Etzioni, whom he met in 1995.

ECONOMIST: Bagehot

Mr Etzioni believes that the stress placed by developed Western societies on individual rights has come at the price of undermining the notion of responsibility to a wider community a key element in Mr Blair's disagreements with the judiciary since becoming prime minister.

ECONOMIST: Bagehot