SOCIAL REGULATION 269 



opinions; while the so-called communities have in addition a sense, 

 or at least a much stronger sense, of solidarity and of common inter- 

 est, some organization, and a capacity for common action. In 

 short, the members of one class have similar, and those of the other 

 have common, sentiments and opinions. The line between these 

 classes is not absolute, and the classes themselves are by no means 

 fixed. A body of persons, that form at one period of the world's 

 history a group, may at another form a community. The family and 

 the local community were, of course, true communities before the 

 dawn of history; and certain bodies of people, such as the dependent 

 group, and still more clearly the groups of lunatics, feeble-minded, 

 and infants, have never been, and could hardly be, communities at all; 

 but, on the other hand, bodies of men pursuing the same occupation, 

 though usually mere groups, have become communities at times and 

 under exceptional conditions. The trade-guilds of the Middle Ages 

 were communities of this kind, and many bodies of workmen that 

 had previously been nothing more than groups have developed into 

 communities during the last hundred years. The trade-unions of 

 the present day are both an expression of a sense of solidarity and 

 an attempt to turn a group of workmen into a true community. 



Now, although neither of these classes can be left out of account 

 in the study of politics and jurisprudence, the community, with its 

 capacity for common action, is by far the more important of the 

 two. Groups involve less difficult problems for both politics and 

 jurisprudence, because in their case the only matter to be consid- 

 ered is the welfare of the group and of the public at large. In the 

 case of communities the question is further complicated by the 

 wishes and the action of the community itself. This may or may not 

 lead to a more just solution according to the wisdom, moderation, 

 and mutual respect, or the animosities and the exasperation, of the 

 various bodies of men concerned. But in any case it adds to the 

 elements of the problem. Whether the movement, for example, 

 to transform bodies of workmen into communities in the form of 

 trade-unions has been beneficial or not, it has certainly, from the 

 point of view both of politics and of jurisprudence, made labor ques- 

 tions more pressing and more complex. 



In treating of the relation of communities to politics and juris- 

 prudence, we must distinguish between those that are based upon 

 status and those that are voluntary. For although this distinction 

 applies to groups as well as to communities, it is naturally far more 

 important in the latter case. 



The classification of social entities according as they are based 

 upon status or upon voluntary association requires, however, both 

 explanation and definition. In some cases the members become such 

 without any voluntary action or possibility of choice on their part. 



