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 mem- 
bers, 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 com- 
pletely 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 central- 
ized authority and of the individual have both diminished. 
The latter was at first a compensation for the undifferen- 
tiated 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 person- 
ality 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.