L60 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL
tween the state and its subjects find thereby an expression
and a correlative in the complete impartiality and identity
of the relationships between the spatial subdivisions and
their occupants.

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nN

Dominion over Territory

Another spatial configuration which is an expression
of sociological relationships is the dominion of a state over
its territory. This is in the last analysis nothing but the
dominion over people expressed in a specific relationship
to a spatial area. The dominion over a territory is the result
 of and an expression for the dominion over people.
The state rules over a certain area because it rules all the
people in that area. In whatever spot of the area the individual
 may be, he will still be subject to the state’s authority.
 This infinite number of possible points comes to be
conceived of as a plane and hence gives rise to the concept
of a dominion over territory. The function of the state can
only be a dominion over people, and a dominion over territory
 in the same sense would have no meaning. It is
merely the expression of the legal fact that there is no exception
 to the dominion of the state over all actual and
possible subjects within its boundaries.
There have been many historical instances in which dominion
 over people was the result of an actual ownership
of the soil. Such was the case in feudal times, when individuals
 were immediately bound to the soil and change of
ownership meant change of dominion. But even under
those conditions the dominion over people does not follow
from the ownership of the soil in the same sense as does the
right to the product of the soil. The relationship between
the two must even then be established by separate and
specific norms and forces. The dominion over people is
even then a separate purpose and not a self-evident result.

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