Representative Organizations - Formal and Voluntary

Abstract

As modern life and its complexity have grown, nore and more of people's lives are taken up by organizations and their activity. And all organized activity, whether enforced by statute or whether growing out of 'spontane-ous collective activity, is characterised by representa-tion by a small number of people who act in the name of the larger collective and its purpose. The nature of this representation varies tremendously. For example, on the one hand, we have that representation which is enforced, or at least enforceable, by statute like the director, board of a company or the legislature of a state. This is often labelled as a 'formal mode of representation. At the other extreme, we have the often transient forms of what is labelled "non-formal" modes of representation. This 'non-formal mode does not seek its right to representation in any formal code or statute; seeks it instead in being able to express and exercise the nature and purpose of a collective. An extreme and transient example, when a crowd organizes around an accident; the few people who may organise relief or pelt stones at the train that caused it act and represent the crowd in their 'non-formal capacity. Between and including these forms lies a wide continuous spectrum.