196 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL
spirit or mere social disapproval to maintain a conformity
to desired social behavior.
The undifferentiated authority of a group over its members,
 however far it may extend, must always leave a large
part of the individual life outside of its scope. This field
is left to the individual’s free arbitrary will, and he is often
the more free in that field in proportion as he is restricted
in his group life. The Roman or the Greek citizen was
severely restricted in his political life, but as master of his
house he had unlimited power. The primitive savage was
completely bound up in his tribal community, but completely
 free in his behavior to outsiders. Tyranny finds its
correlative in a complete license in those fields which it
does not reach.
The modern social structure yields a better proportion
of freedom and restraint. The arbitrariness of the centralized
 authority and of the individual have both diminished.
The latter was at first a compensation for the undifferentiated
 restraint of the collective power. With a decrease in
the first, there followed a decrease in the latter. The more
the individual as a whole was freed from social restraint,
the more did he voluntarily bind himself in the separate
aspects of his personality. The more he became freed from
the authority of the all-inclusive group, the more did he
freely bind himself in other social circles. He found social
bonds and lived a social life with those sides of his personality
 which up to that time had expressed themselves in a
purely individualistic behavior. This correlation is of a
formal sociological nature. It holds good for all aspects of
social life independently of their content. It is illustrated
by the fact of the existence of a vigorous associative life in
countries with great political freedom, as well as by the
fact of the formation of numerous sects among religious
communities which lack a strong hierarchical system.