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| Nicolas de Staël, Les Musiciens (1952) |
‘Institutional communities’ (eg state, family, marriage) and ‘voluntary associations’ (eg sports, arts, work, politics)
by Herman Dooyeweerd
(Extracts from A New Critique of Theoretical Thought, Vol III pp 574, 577, 596, 597, 603, 605. ‘Structures of Individuality of Temporal Human Society’)
See preceding extract HERE
[…] Secondly we have to introduce the systematic distinction between institutional and non-institutional communities. As the terms “institute” or “institution” lack a univocal meaning in sociology (especially since Durkheim’s extremely broad interpretation of the words), it is again necessary to give a sharp definition of the sense in which I shall use them.
‘INSTITUTIONAL COMMUNITIES’
By “institutional communities” I understand both natural and organized communities which by their inner nature are destined to encompass their members to an intensive degree, continuously or at least for a considerable part of their life, and such in a way independent of their will. According to the Christian view their differentiated basic types are founded in a special divine institution.
Family, State, Church
The natural family community (both in its broader and in its narrower sense) is one into which one is born. The same holds good with respect to the State; although one can get citizenship also in other ways, no citizen is able to change his nationality at will. The institutional community of the Church receives the children of Christian parents as its members by baptism and as such they continue to belong to this community through a bond independent of their will, until they reach their years of discretion. This institutional trait is lacking in the sects which reject infant-baptism and are sometimes even without any institutional organization.
Marriage
Similarly the institutional conjugal community embraces husband and wife by a bond independent of their will. According to its inner structural principle it is a bond which is destined to unite them for life. When there are particular circumstances which make it necessary to dissolve it, it is the institutional character of the conjugal community which requires supra-individual rules for divorce. In any case the inner nature of this institution is independent of the subjective conceptions of the matrimonial bond, which in course of time may strongly vary. A scientific examination of the development of such conceptions and their influence upon the formation of the positive norms regulating this institution presupposes the supra-arbitrary structural principle of the latter. By eliminating this principle, scientific research lacks any point of reference which alone makes it possible to relate the different conceptions to the same institution. It is in vain to seek for some common characteristics in the different subjective conceptions which science might combine to a so-called “empirical” concept of the marriage bond. The so-called “common traits” are as such quite arbitrary and can never determine the inner nature of the institution. The institutional character of the conjugal bond precludes any possibility of transforming the latter into a ‘voluntary association’. […] It is true that in a modern individualized and differentiated society the agreement of the future marriage partners is an essential condition for constituting the institutional conjugal bond. But this agreement is in the nature of the case not a contract of free association in which the establishment of a specific purpose is constitutive. (p 574)
‘VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS’
The establishment of the purpose of a ‘voluntary association’ is a subjective act of the founders, in contradistinction to the structural principle of the organized community, which is a supra-arbitrary structural law. This explains how the subjective purpose may give the internal leading function of the organization a fundamentally illegal and criminal form, and that nevertheless the internal community remains bound to some typical moral, juridical, economical, and social normative principles which are indispensable to maintain the organizational bond between the members. (p 577)
Free societal life (sports, arts, commerce, job, politics etc)
For reasons of self-preservation it is necessary for modern society to develop counter-tendencies against the unbridled operation of individualism. This is what modern society is actually doing in the formation of voluntary associations or unions which direct the typical integrative tendencies in horizontal forms of organization. These organizational forms are to be observed in the most different sectors of free societal life, in science and fine arts, in sports and the different branches of instruction, in journalism, philantropy, etc. But the most impressive image of this organizational integrating process is to be found in the economically qualified societal relationships. Both employers and labourers in trade, traffic and industry have organized themselves according to the various branches of the latter, though in all these branches organization has not arrived at an equal level of development. In addition, trusts, large business concerns, etc. have been formed, which often display an international character. (pp 596, 597)
The ‘voluntary associations’ display an infinite structural variety. Some of them only touch people's temporal existence very superficially, such as "clubs"; others, eg, the horizontal occupational organizations such as trade unions etc, occupy a very important and extensive place in modern society and are at least partly animated by a strong spirit of community and solidarity. […] We shall have to devote a more elaborate investigation to the structural principle of a political party, which we have chosen as a second example of the application of our method of analysis to structural types of voluntary associations. (pp 603, 605) (NEXT)
(Extracts from A New Critique of Theoretical Thought, Vol III pp 574, 577, 596, 597, 603, 605. ‘Structures of Individuality of Temporal Human Society’)
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