SURVIVAL OF INSTITUTIONS . 299 



1. The integral persistence of an institution. 



A non-functional institution may survive and 

 retain its structure and resources in the following 

 cases : 



1. By the intervention of some superior authority 



to prevent its suppression. 



2. When, while ceasing to be functional, it con- 



tinues to be useful, though indirectly so. 



3. When its existence is maintained out of respect 



for old traditions. 



We will take these three hypotheses in succession, 

 but it must be borne in mind that when a non- 

 functional institution is maintained out of respect 

 to tradition, or by virtue of an indirect usefulness, 

 it is always by the intervention of legal authority. 

 This legal authority, however, amounts to an ex- 

 pression of the public will, whereas an institution 

 may also be maintained by the exercise of personal 

 influence on the part of some one person. 



It sometimes happens, too, that a non-functional 

 institution continues to survive because its suppres- 

 sion would entail important changes in other parts 

 of the social organization. 



1. MAINTENANCE BY COMPULSION. A useless in- 

 stitution is frequently maintained by compulsion, 

 when its conservation is advantageous to those con- 

 nected with it, or even to other persons. 1 



The following are a few examples of this : 



1 Spencer, Principles of Sociology, vol. iii. 



