Re: De Regno, even if we accept its authenticity, Aquinas does not explicitly claim that political authority/government is the formal cause of political community.
Government is a function/act proper to some or all of the material elements of political community, it is not identical to the material elements in themselves .
As for what makes a community, it is custom taken in a broad sense, encompassing law (and not just civil law), culture, and also the recognition that one is a member of such a community (what falls under the subjective conception of group identity) both by one's self and by others.
Coming to a proper understanding of political community and society will not be easy for most of us as we have become habituated to living in degenerate forms of community (to the point at which they cease being communities properly speaking).
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