Communal viability and employment of non-member labor: Testing hypotheses with historical data

A well developed body of theory associates the employment of nonmember labo r by collective organisations with their eventual dissolution. Manuscript a nd published data on hiring of outside laborers by nineteenth century Ameri can religious communes allows for tests of two propositions taken from this literature: that employment of non-members increased over time and that su ch employment was responsible for the communes' eventual demise. The first was upheld but no evidence was found to support the second. In fact, employ ment of non-members was found instead to be associated with communal prospe rity, in economic, religious, and survival terms.