ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes to define instinct very briefly as “inherited disposition to behaviour.” The usual contrast made is between instinctive and intelligent behaviour. The chapter considers how far universality can be taken as a distinguishing feature of instinct. Examples of government in communistic communities, such as those of Melanesia, suggest that the leader is not essential to success in many lines of activity in which we are inclined to look upon him as indispensable. One of the most important, but at the same time most difficult problems facing people moving towards, or striving to move towards, a genuine democracy is how far it will be possible for the immense communities of modern times to reach the harmony of social action which has been attained by many small communities without a leader or with a leadership the importance of which in social life has been reduced to very small dimensions.
