ABSTRACT
Social reform was the chief aim of the Fourierist, Owenite, Icarian, and other non-religious communities. The causes of failure are to be found lack of transport facilities. But dissolution came about more often because of the quarrels among the settlers, as well as between them and the management and the members lack of experience in agriculture. Religious purism—the desire to return to the very roots of Christianity, to live as did Jesus and His disciples—was the dominant motive for establishing these religious communities. On the basis of their fundamental motives, all co-operative settlements may be divided into two classes: the religious and the socio-reformistic. It is interesting to note that the foregoing long-lived communities are of a religious character. In the religious communities a declaration of faith was the chief qualification for admission to membership. With the socio-reformistic settlements, methods of selection were used which would be even more inadequate as requirements for admission to contemporary communities.
