It can tolerate other religions but not as official or state-supported institutions. The associational pattern emerges when religion is separated from the state and other coercive structures. It rests on the voluntary commitment and effort of the individuals and groups that make up that religion. This approach both assumes and creates religious pluralism, as people create differing religious associations according to their beliefs, interests, languages, customs, and ethical values. Depending on which of these organisational forms a religious culture takes on, it frames the question of governmental relations to religion differently.
Communal forms see individuals primarily as members of a group or community.
This may create tension with government, which sees individuals as citizens with certain rights as citizens. The governance patterns of the commune may contradict the imperatives of the constitution, as happens sometimes with rights of women or property rights in land. A crucial question here concerns whether freedom of religion, which may be a constitutional guarantee, means the freedom of a whole community to pursue its traditional way of life or whether it only means the freedom of individuals to associate freely for clearly circumscribed religious purposes. Institutional forms highlight the rights of the institution but also the rights of individuals as members of that institution. However, they still seek governmental preferences and privileges, especially in matters of education, social service, and family.