154 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL 
spatial proximity is a direct advantage. It allows a rein- 
forcement or a toning down of the purely emotional ties 
through actual sensations and observations, and it enables 
the insufficiencies of the logical formulation to be sup- 
plemented by personal contact. 
Apart from the purely psychological effects on the im- 
mediate relationships, the proximity or distance between 
the socialized elements is also of importance for the objec- 
tive structure of the group as a whole. This is manifest in 
the correlation between spatial proximity and centraliza- 
tion on the one hand, and between local diffusion and de- 
centralization on the other hand. 
A community whose elements live far apart will rarely 
show tendencies toward centralization. When during the 
Middle Ages the Swiss peasant communities constituted 
themselves into political units, they repeated in their or- 
ganization the fundamental traits of town administrations. 
But the community life of the peasants was not entirely 
transferred to the special administrative organs, as was the 
case in the cities. The popular assembly remained the most 
important organ for jurisdiction as well as for the general 
guiding of public affairs. This was the result partly of the 
distrust in central organs which cannot be adequately 
supervised from a long distance, and partly of the lower 
vitality of the social reciprocities in the rural districts. 
Town communities, on the other hand, show a far-going 
centralization entirely independent of their otherwise pro- 
nounced democratic tendencies. 
Dispersed living in rural districts is a favorable con- 
dition for the development of aristocracies, and even de- 
mocracies begin to partake of aristocratic characteristics 
under such a condition. This is due to the self-sufficiency 
of individuals and their freedom from and independence 
1 Soz., pp. 64046.