CHAPTER 1
SUBMISSION

SUPERORDINATION AND SUBORDINATION!

HE most important form of relationship in the whole
Tei world is the relationship between the leader
and his followers, between the superior and his subordinates.
 It is a form of socialization without which no social
 life would be possible, and the main factor sustaining
the unity of groups. Superiority and subordination constitute
 the sociological expression of psychological differences
 in human beings, and wherever these are associated,
there they appear in a more or less pronounced form.
This relationship between the superior and the inferior
assumes oftentimes the appearance of a one-sided operation.
 It seems as if the superior exerts an influence which
the inferior merely undergoes. But the latter is by no
means a purely passive agent. The subordinate in turn
exerts an influence on the superior, and it is only by virtue
of this interaction of the two that in the relationship the
one takes the position of superior and the other the position
 of subordinate. The relationship of superior to inferior
 is a form of interaction between individuals and therefore
 a form of socialization. It always allows a certain
amount of independence and spontaneity on the part of
the subordinate. In some cases of superiority and inferiority
 the amount of spontaneity and independence of the
subordinate is great, in others small; but it is never wholly
absent. Even in a case of the worst tyranny, the subordi-\

 Adapted from Soz., chap. iii, pp. 134-246.