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
One thing more it is necessary to bear in mind in considering the
unified state, and that is that a unifying state is not a static state.
We, organized as the state, may issue certain commands to ourselves
to-day, but organized as a plastic state, those commands may change
to-morrow with our changing needs and changing ideals, and they will
change through _our_ initiative. The true state is neither an external
force nor an unchanging force. Rooted in our most intimate daily lives,
in those bonds which are at the same time the strongest and the most
pliant, the “absolutism” of the true state depends always upon _our_
activity. The objectors to the unified state seem to imply that it is
necessarily a ready-made state, with hard and fast articulations,
existing apart from us, imposing its commands upon us which we must
obey; but the truth is that the state must be in perfect flux and that
it is utterly dependent upon us for its appearance. In so far as we
actualize it, it appears to us; we recognize that it is wrong, then we
see it in a higher form and actualize that. The true state is not an
arbitrary creation. It is a process: a continual self-modification to
express its different stages of growth which each and all must be so
flexible that continual change of form is twin-fellow of continual
growth.
But every objection that can be raised against the pluralists does not I
believe take from them the right to leadership in political thought.
First, they prick the bubble of the present state’s right to supremacy.
They see that the state which has been slowly forming since the Middle
Ages with its pretences and unfulfilled claims has not won either our
regard or respect. Why then, they ask, should we render this state
obedience? “[The state must] prove itself by what it achieves.” With the
latter we are all beginning to agree.
Genuine power, in the sense not of power actually possessed, but in the
sense of a properly evolved power, is, we have seen, an actual
psychological process. Invaluable, therefore, is the implicit warning of
the pluralists that to attain this power is an infinite task.
Sovereignty is always a-growing; our political forms must keep closely
in touch with the specific stage of that growth. In rendering the state
obedience, we assume that the state has genuine power (because the
consequences of an opposite assumption would be too disastrous) while we
are trying to approximate it. The great lesson of Mr. Laski’s book is in
its implication that we do not have a sovereign state until we make one.
Political theory will not _create_ sovereignty, acts of Parliament
cannot _confer_ sovereignty, only living the life will turn us, subjects
indeed at present, into kings of our own destiny.
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