CONCEPTS AND METHODS OF SOCIOLOGY 797 



exploitation to equilibration through uplifting, and it depends 

 upon the broadening and deepening of the consciousness of kind. 



A fourth phase of internal equilibration appears in the strug- 

 gle among differing groups of the like-minded in the community. 

 Some elements of the population are sympathetically emotional, 

 or are alike in beliefs or dogmas. Others are alike intellectually, 

 rationally: they attain agreement through deliberation. In every 

 community the reasoning and the unreasoning elements are in 

 perpetual conflict. 



To the extent that the community is controlled by its deliber- 

 ative element, it exhibits a policy a more or less consistent at- 

 tempt consciously made to control its destiny. In the history of 

 human society there have been three great groups of policies, namely: 

 (1) policies of unification attempts to make all members of the 

 community alike in type, in belief, and in conduct; (2) policies 

 of liberty attempts to give wide scope to individual initiative; 

 (3) policies of equality attempts to prevent the disintegration 

 of society through an excess of individual liberty. The struggle of 

 conflicting interests in the community, which these three modes 

 of policy represent, is yet another form of internal equilibration. 



To the extent that a policy of equality is adopted, the com- 

 munity is democratic. Political equality, equality before the law, 

 and some approach toward equality of economic opportunity, 

 are the essential elements of democracy. No sooner is democracy 

 evolved than we see a struggle between the forces that make for 

 absolutist, and those that make for liberal, democracy. Either 

 the majority is permitted to rule at will, or it is compelled to leave 

 inviolate certain rights of the minority and of individuals. 



The outcome of all equilibration, external and internal, is a cer- 

 tain relation of the individual to the social organization. In low 

 types of society, the individual literally belongs to the various so- 

 cial groups in which his lot is cast. He belongs to them for life. 

 To leave them is to become an outcast. He may not leave his clan, 

 his guild, his caste, his church, or his state. In superior types of 

 society we discover a high degree of individual mobility combined 

 with a marvelous power to concentrate enormous numbers of in- 

 dividuals, in moments of emergency, upon any work needing to be 

 done. The individual may go freely from state to state, from par- 

 ish to parish, in search of his best economic opportunity. He may 

 sever connection with his church to join another, or none at all. 

 He may be a director to-day in a dozen corporations, and to-mor- 

 row in a dozen different ones. The goal of social evolution is a 

 complex, flexible, liberal organization, permitting the utmost 

 liberty and mobility to the individual, without impairing the effi- 

 ciency of organization as a whole. 



