The new state : $b Group organization the solution of popular governmentFollett, Mary Parker
Science
The new state : $b Group organization the solution of popular government
Follett, Mary Parker
Democracy; Political participation; Social psychology; State, The
Then, too, that does not always do us most good which we enjoy most, as
we are not always progressing most when thrills go up and down our
spine. We may have a selected group feeling “good,” but that is not
going to make us good. That very homogeneity which we nestle down into
and in which we find all the comfort of a down pillow, does not provide
the differences in which alone we can grow. We must know the finer
enjoyment of recognized diversity.
It must be noted, however, that while it is not proposed that the
neighborhood association be substituted for other forms of
association—trade-union, church societies, fraternal societies, local
improvement leagues, coöperative societies, men’s clubs, women’s clubs
etc.—yet the hope is that it shall not be one more association merely,
but that it shall be the means of coördinating and translating into
community values other local groups. The neighborhood association might
become a very mechanical affair if we were all to go there every evening
and go nowhere else. It must not with its professed attempt to give a
richer life cut off the variety and spontaneity we now have.
But the trouble now is that we have so much unrelated variety, so much
unutilized spontaneity. The small merchant of a neighborhood meets with
the other small dealers for business purposes, he goes to church on
Sundays, he gets his social intercourse at his lodge or club, but where
and when does he consider any possible integration of these into
channels for community life? At his political rally, to be sure, he
meets his neighbors irrespective of business or church or social lines,
but there he comes under party domination. A free, full community life
lived within the sustaining and nourishing power of the community bond,
lived for community ends, is almost unknown now. This will not come by
substituting the neighborhood group for other groups, not even by using
it as a clearing-house, but by using it as a medium for interpretation
and unofficial integration.
There should be as much spontaneous association as the vitality of the
neighborhood makes possible, but other groups may perhaps find their
significance and coördination through the neighborhood association. If a
men’s or women’s club is of no use to the community it should not exist;
if it is of use, it must find out of what use, how related to all other
organizations, how through and with them related to the whole community.
The lawyers’ club, the teachers’ club, the trade association or the
union—these can have little influence on their community until they
discover their relation to the community through and in one another. I
have seen many examples of this. If the neighborhood group is to be the
political unit, it must learn how to gather up into significant
community expression these more partial expressions of individual wants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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