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
WHAT does group psychology teach us, as far as we at present understand
it, in regard to sovereignty? How does the group get its power? By each
one giving up his sovereignty? Never. By some one from outside
presenting it with authority? No, although that is the basis of much of
our older legal theory. Real authority inheres in a genuine whole. The
individual is sovereign over himself as far as he unifies the
heterogeneous elements of his nature. Two people are sovereign over
themselves as far as they are capable of creating one out of two. A
group is sovereign over itself as far as it is capable of creating one
out of several or many. A state is sovereign only as it has the power of
creating one in which all are. Sovereignty is the power engendered by a
complete interdependence becoming conscious of itself. Sovereignty is
the imperative of a true collective will. It is not something academic,
it is produced by actual living with others—we learn it only through
group life. By the subtle process of interpenetration a collective
sovereignty is evolved from a distributed sovereignty. Just so can and
must, by the law of their being, groups unite to form larger groups,
these larger groups to form a world-group.
I have said that many of the pluralists are opposed to the monistic
state because they do not see that a collective and distributive
sovereignty can exist together. They talk of the Many and the One
without analyzing the process by which the Many and the One are creating
each other. We now see that the problem of the compounding of
consciousness, of the One and the Many, need not be left either to an
intellectualistic or to an intuitive metaphysics. It is to be solved
through a laboratory study of group psychology. When we have that, we
shall not have to argue any more about the One and the Many: we shall
actually see the Many and the One emerging at the same time; we can then
work out the laws of the relation of the One (the state) to the Many
(the individual), and of the Many (the individual) to the One (the
state), not as a metaphysical question but on a scientific basis. And
the process of the Many becoming One is the process by which sovereignty
is created. Our conceptions of sovereignty can no longer rest on mere
abstractions, theory, speculative thought. How absurdly inadequate such
processes are to explain the living, interweaving web of humanity. The
question of sovereignty concerns the organization of men (which
obviously must be fitted to their nature), hence it finds its answer
through the psychological analysis of man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account