8 - From Congregation to Reformed Church

Summary

[I]t is the distinctive characteristic of every sect … that it is based on a restricted association of individual local congregations. From this principle, which is represented in Protestantism by the Baptists and Independents, and later by the Congregationalists, a gradual transition leads to the typical organization of the Reformed Church

Max Weber

Institutional interpenetration of trade unions and partisan politics was a key obstacle to unification of both wings of the labor movement. Because unions and parties organized strongly overlapping constituencies, conflicts that arose in one institutional arena were easily transmitted to the other. Moreover, the issue continually arose as to whether political parties or unions were the leading agency of the labor movement. The dilemma of a full-scale realignment from sectarian to solidaristic can therefore be seen as three-sided: the problem of interunion unity, the problem of interparty sect unity, and the tension in the relationship between union and party. Their interdependence meant that one of these institutional problems could not be definitively settled in isolation from a compatible settlement of the other two. As Chapter 2 argued, the stability of balanced dualism depends on its being generalized to the broader system of interdependent relationships. As suggested by Mauss's model of gift exchange, Lévi-Strauss's model of generalized exchange, and Weber's discussion of the early Christian congregations, this occurs through a continuous “exogenizing” of solidarity such that broader and broader groups are incorporated under the principles of balanced dualism.