ABSTRACT
Unlike the group into which one is born, such as a family or a tribe, voluntary associations require a conscious act of affiliation. Examples include the secret societies of traditional China, the trade guilds of medieval Europe, the labor and reform organizations of the 19th-century United States, and the tribal unions of modern West African cities. If voluntary associations have appeared in many places and historical contexts, however, they have been chiefly associated with industrial societies and pluralistic democracies. Why this is so has precipitated long-standing debates among sociologists and political scientists.
