ABSTRACT
With the growth of freedom classes come to be more open, that is, more based on individual traits and less upon descent. Competition comes actively into play and more or less efficiently fulfils its function of assigning to each one an appropriate place in the whole. The question whether there is or ought to be "class-consciousness" in a democratic society is a matter of definitions. If classes are open and men make their way from one into another, it is plain that they cannot be separate mental wholes as may be the case with castes. Non-hereditary classes may have plenty of solidarity and class spirit—consider, for instance, the medieval clergy—and their activity may also be of a special and remote sort, like that of an astronomical society, but after all there will be something democratic about them. Class organization is not, as some people assert, necessarily hostile to freedom.
