This paper examines Simmel's analysis of the secret society as a source of rich insight into the role of secrecy in social organization. Some of the central attributes of the secret society as a constructed type are reviewed, and the principal instance of an attempt to empirically test Simmel's analysis is evaluated. Then, Nine Propositions extracted from Simmel's essay are presented and discussed. The major contention of this paper is that if Simmel's insights are to be fruitfully utilized, the deliberate generation of sound propositions must be the first step. O ?f Simmel's many insightful essays, one of the most frequently overlooked in American sociology is "The Secret and the Secret Society,"' which was first translated into English in 1906.2 As well as being an analysis of the role of secrecy and of organizations peculiarly marked by conditions of secrecy, this essay also presents many significant elements of Simmel's analyses of more general sociological concerns such as community, alienation, and authority. The student of de Tocqueville or of Marx, for example, will find much that is familiar before he confronts the elaborations and modifications that are uniquely Simmelian. Yet the essay has attracted little sustained interest.3 One possible reason for this lack of attention is the decreased significance, both numerical and subjective, of the secret society in recent American history. The number of "visible" secret organizations has apparently declined since the early 1900's, and of those that have survived (e.g., Ku Klux Klan, Rosicrucians, Cosa Nostra, and recent "Black Nationalist" groups) none has received the serious interest of contemporary sociologists, with the tentative exception of the "Black Nationalist" organizations. Whatever the reason, the oversight is unfortunate, since the essay contains numerous insights into, among other phenomena, the role of secrecy as a means for the manipulation and control of a central variable in social organization: information.4 The purpose of this paper is to present in propositional form some aspects of Simmel's analysis of the secret society. The Propositions make no pretension to the status of theory; they lack sufficient integration for that. Instead, they represent a simple inventory of primarily bivariate statements. Nor is any evidence of verification offered for the Propositions, either singly or collectively, beyond the sporadic illustrations and examples provided by Simmel himself (which do not, of course, constitute evidence of nomothetic validity).5 The intended * The author is indebted to Joseph Lopreato for his critical comments on an earlier draft of this paper. 1 Originally published in Georg Simmel, Soziologie, Untersutchungen fiber die Form-en der Vergesellschaftung (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1908), chap. 5. Translated as Part 4 of Kurt H. Wolff, The Sociology of Georg Simmel (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1950). Future references to the essay are to Wolff's rendition. 2 "The Sociology of Secrecy and of Secret Societies," translated by Albion W. Small, Aserican Joural of Sociology, 11 (January 1906), pp. 441498. 3 For example, an examination of the first 70 volumes of the American Journal of Sociology (1895-1965) reveals only three articles (including Small's translation) concerning the secret society, and the first 30 volumes of the American Sociological Review (1936-1965) contain none. 4 Information in the sense of the knowledge and skill that a person possesses relative to given role performances. See for example, Kaare Svalastoga, Social Differentiation (New York: David McKay Co., 1965), chaps. 1 and 2; and Wilbert E. Moore and Melvin M. Tumin, "Some Social Functions of Ignorance," American Sociological Review, 14 (December 1949), pp. 787-795. 5 Simmel's reliance upon the occasional example for substantiation of his analysis is one of the greatest weaknesses of not only this essay but most of his other essays as well. It should be emphasized, however, that his essays were not "speculative" in the pejorative sense of the word; his method of comparing both similar and diverse inThis content downloaded from 157.55.39.205 on Sun, 04 Dec 2016 05:00:01 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms