ABSTRACT
In areas with a wide range of population types, the balanced community—that is, a local cross-section of the entire area—would probably experience intense political and cultural conflict. Heterogeneity is thought to engender the tolerance necessary for the achievement of local democracy and for the reduction of social and political conflict. The discussion will be limited to heterogeneity of age, class, and race—these being the most important criteria affecting and differentiating community life. The value of population heterogeneity for children is based on the assumption that they discover other age-groups and classes through visual contact, and that they learn how to live with them through the resulting social contact. The advocacy of moderate homogeneity was based on a single set of values, those concerning the quality of social life. There is no reason to expect that homogeneity of class and age will ever be totally eliminated in residential areas.
