Proportionally matched growth still alters a group’s internal relations

Evidence

Suppose we have a party within a larger society. The relation between the two changes not only when the society remains stationary while the party increases or decreases in membership, but also when they both change in the same sense and to the same extent. This fact reveals the sociological significance of the magnitude or smallness of the total group even for the numerical relations of its elements. — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 3223

Categorization

• XREF: Relevant to how adding witnesses to a dyad (Simmel’s triad) changes obligation structure regardless of proportional consistency. — connects to: Foreign membership growth can distort apparent US civic association trends — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1572; Group unity dissolves as members’ lived demands grow heterogeneous. — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 453