THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



JANUARY, 1881. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



By HEEBEKT SPENCER. 

 III. POLITICAL INTEGRATION. 



POLITICAL integration is in some cases furthered, and in other 

 cases hindered, by conditions, external and internal. There are 

 the characters of the environment, and there are the characters of the 

 men composing the society. We will glance at them in this order. 



How political integration is prevented by an inclemency of climate, 

 or an infertility of soil, which keeps down population, has been already 

 shown.* To the instances before named may be added that of the 

 Seminoles, of whom Schoolcraft says, " Being so thinly scattered over 

 a barren desert, they seldom assemble to take black drink, or deliber- 

 ate on public matters " ; and, again, that of certain Snake Indians, of 

 whom he says, " The paucity of game in this region is, I have little 

 doubt, the cause of the almost entire absence of social organization." 

 We saw, too, that great uniformity of surface, of mineral products, of 

 flora, of fauna, are impediments ; and that on the special characters 

 of the flora and fauna, as containing species favorable or unfavorable 

 to human welfare, in part depends the individual prosperity required 

 for social growth. It was also pointed out that structure of the hab- 

 itat, as facilitating or impeding communication, and as rendering 

 escape easy or hard, has much to do with the size of the social aggre- 

 gate formed. To the illustrations before given, showing that moun- 

 tain-haunting peoples, and peoples living in deserts and marshes, are 

 difficult to consolidate, while peoples penned in by barriers are con- 

 solidated with facility,! I may here add two significant ones not yet 

 noticed. One occurs in the Polynesian Islands Tahiti, Hawaii, Ton- 



* "Principles of Sociology," 14-21. f Ibid., 17. 



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