The Success of American Communes.

• Author: Thies, Clifford F.

Clifford F. Thies [*]

This study analyzes the effect of the structure of communes on their success, using the data of 281 communes started in America from 1683 to 1937. Factors increasing the likelihood of success include (i) being a pietist religious sect, (ii) inducing commitment as measured by an index of several underlying variables, (iii) allowing some private property, and (iv) with some qualification, having anarchic governance. These results support the prevailing commitment hypothesis. They additionally indicate that communes can increase their likelihood of success by making some concessions to egoistic concerns.

1. Introduction

   America has a long and varied history of communes. The first ones consisted of religious sects, including immigrant German Anabaptists and American Shakers. These were followed by numerous other sectarian, nonsectarian religious, and nonreligious communes. During the late twentieth century, a new wave of experiments was underway, with hippie communes.

   These communes have featured a wide range of purpose and organization. For the religious sects, the purpose was to enable their members to live more holy lives. The purpose was not necessarily to replace the private property system. For the secular socialists, the purpose was specifically to demonstrate the superiority of communal work and living arrangements. Some of these communes have been egalitarian, and others have allowed a measure of private property. Some have been ruled by charismatic and dictatorial leaders, and others have been more or less democratic (in some instances, communes originally formed by authoritarian leaders made a transition to democratic governance). Some have been celibate or (strictly) monogamous, and others have allowed polygamy or free love. Some have prohibited alcohol, tobacco, and meat, or required uniformity in dress, or in other ways required special conditions of their members.

   These communes have also varied greatly in their success, as measured by either the number of years of their existence, their growth and replication, or their achievement of selfprofessed goals. It is commonly thought that the more successful communes were the religious sects that emphasized traditional virtues in work and family life, and de-emphasized materialism. In his history of communes, John H. Noyes, founder and longtime leader of the Oneida commune, quotes one observer: "That there have been-nay are-decided successes in practical socialism, is undeniable, but they all have that communistic basis that seems to me irrational and calculated to prove fatal (i.e., are cult religions) ... Theory, however plausible, must respect the facts" ([18701 1966, pp. 137-8). Similarly Charles Nordhoff, a journalist who made a survey of communes in 1874, concludes that for "a commune to exist harmoniously, it must be composed of persons who are of one mind upon some question that to them shall appear so important as to take the place of religion, if it is not essentially religious ..." ([1875] 1965, p. 387).

   Contemporary scholarship affirms these findings. Rosabeth Kantor (1972) argues that the traditional sectarian communes were more successful because they required the most commitment from their members. Robert Fogarty (1980, p. xxiii) says that "successful utopian colonies are usually religious; however, such a fact has never deterred the secular utopians from starting new projects." Hugh Gardner (1978), studying recently formed communes, constructs an index of commitment, including time and financial contribution, communion with other members, renunciation of the outside world, and abstinence, and he finds that the more successful communes required greater commitment. John R. Hall (1988) identifies different types of communal groups, including two categories (commune and intentional association) that involve secularist reasoning and three others (ecstatic association, community, and other-worldly sect) that involve emotional and religious underpinnings, and he uses several statistical techniques to determine success, measured by longevity of communal groups. He concludes that "groups that approximated the commune and intentional association ... do not seem to have been able, on average, of resolving such problems (i.e., commitment), and thus were short-lived" (p. 689).

   According to the economic theory of clubs (Buchanan 1965; Sandler and Tschirhart 1980), if there are public goods (those that the consumption of which cannot be excluded to members of a community), these public goods can be efficiently produced and consumed by self-forming groups of individuals. A potential problem for clubs is free riding, that is, the joining or continued participation of members who do not contribute their fair share and yet who consume the public goods produced by the clubs. The egalitarian distribution of wealth and income, which characterizes communes, poses a severe problem of free riding. Lawrence R. Iannaccone (1992, 1994) argues that requiring commitment through constraints on dress, grooming, sexual conduct, and so on, retards the free-riding problem by screening nonbelievers and helps to bond members together. These seemingly arbitrary impositions on personal conduct may, therefore, serve a useful purpose.

2. A Selective History of American Communes

   It is beyond the scope of this study to attempt anything approaching a complete history of American communes. [1] Nevertheless, it is appropriate to present a selective history so the reader who is not already familiar with the subject can form a concrete idea of these communes.

   Beginning in the late seventeenth century, many religious sects have come to this country to establish communes. Perhaps the most successful of the early ones was Ephrata, Pennsylvania, founded in 1732 (Sachse [1895] 1970, [1899-1900] 1971). The community was organized by a German Seventh-Day Baptist sect under the leadership of Johann Conrad Beissel. Harassed by local authorities who attempted to enforce the community's Sunday closing laws (or blue laws) (as Seventh-Day members, they believed that Saturday was the Sabbath), they relocated to an isolated place, where Beissel started a commune of ascetic and celibate brothers and sisters, around which other members of his sect established their farms and businesses. In truth, this community was not completely communistic, but a symbiotic relation between a monastic order and the more traditional individualists that the order provided with religious services.

   The brothers and sisters of the order lived lives of hard work, physical austerity, and prayer. Dressed in rough woolen habits, they went barefoot whenever possible, and instead of using animals, they pulled their own carts. As a constant reminder that "narrow is the way that leadeth to life," (Matt. 7:14) the hallways of their buildings were only 20 inches wide. The sect was known for its wonderful choir, school, and German-language publishing house. When Beissel died, leadership passed to an elder who was competent and well respected. But over time the order's membership grew increasingly aged, and the commune never recovered from its devastation during the Revolutionary War when it was pressed into service as a field hospital and a typhoid epidemic broke out. Today, a reconstructed cloister stands in Ephrata, having some of the original buildings of the commune, with guided tours to tell its history.

   Another early immigrant religious sect forming a commune was that of George Rapp (Arndt 1965, 1972). In 1805, this German Anabaptist sect migrated to the New World to avoid persecution. First located in Harmony, Pennsylvania, the group later relocated to Harmony, Indiana, and then again relocated to Economy, Pennsylvania. Rapp taught that intercourse was wrong even between husband and wife, and that property was to be held in common, except that members could keep household gardens. In 1817, the group reached 1000 members. After that, the group slowly shrank as the members grew old and died. Following Rapp's death, leadership fell to his adopted son, and following his adopted son's death, to a popularly elected board of trustees. During the early twentieth century, after resolving disposition of the commune's property with an unscrupulous trustee, the state of Pennsylvania dedicated its land and buildings as a historical site.

   This sect became known for its orderliness, industry, and thrift, and for its balancing of privacy and simple pleasures with communal living. While other sects employed constant observation and material deprivation to bond members, the Harmony Society was joined by little more than a deep trust in its leader George Rapp. A sincere and capable man, Rapp remained vigorous to his death at the age of 90, when he, still awaiting the imminent return of Jesus, passed away saying, "If I did not know that the dear Lord meant I should present you all to him, I should think my last moment's come."

   In 1787, the first village of the Shakers, perhaps the most successful American-born commune, was formed at Mt. Lebanon, New York, by Ann Lee (or Mother Ann), cofounder of the Shakers along with...