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
But the conclusion drawn by some pluralists from the theory of “real
personality” is that the state is superfluous because a corporate
personality has the right to assert autonomy over itself. They thus
acknowledge that pluralism means for them group and group and group side
by side. But here they are surely wrong. They ignore the implications of
the psychological fact that power developed within the group does not
cease with the formation of the group. That very same force which has
bound the individuals together in the group (and which the theory of
“real personality” recognizes) goes on working, you cannot stop it; it
is the fundamental force of life, of all nature, of all humanity, the
universal law of being—the out-reaching for the purpose of further
unifying. If this force goes on working after the group is formed, what
becomes of it? It must reach out to embrace other groups in order to
repeat exactly the same process.
When you stop your automobile without stopping your engine, the power
which runs your car goes on working exactly the same, but is completely
lost. It only makes a noise. Do we want this to happen to our groups?
Are they to end only in disagreeable noises? In order that the
group-force shall not be lost, we must provide means for it to go on
working effectively after it is no longer needed within the group, so to
speak. We must provide ways for it to go out to meet the life force of
other groups, the new power thus generated again and endlessly to seek
new forms of unification. No “whole” can imprison us infinite beings.
The centre of to-day is the circumference of to-morrow.
Thus while the state is not necessary to grant authority, it is the
natural outcome of the uniting groups. The state must be the collective
mind embodying the moral will and purpose of All. From living group to
living group to the “real” state—such must be our line of evolution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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