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 must men understand that in peace as in war ours is to be a life of
endeavor, of work, of conscious effort towards conscious ends. The
ordinary man is not to do his work and then play a little in order to
refresh himself, with the understanding that the world of industry and
the government of his country are to be run by experts. They are to be
run by him and he is to prepare himself to tackle his job. The
leisure-time problem is not how the workman can have more time for play,
it is how he can have more time for association, to take his share in
the integrated thought and will and responsibility which is to make the
new world. The “good citizen” is not he who obeys the laws, but he who
has an active sense of being an integral part of the state. This is the
essence and the basis of effective good citizenship. We are not part of
a nation because we are living within its boundaries, because we feel in
sympathy with it and have accepted its ideas, because we have become
naturalized. We are part of a nation only in so far as we are helping to
make that nation.
For this we must provide methods by which every man is enabled to take
his part. We are no longer to put business and political affairs in the
hands of one set of men and then appoint another set as watch-dogs over
them, with the people at best a sort of chorus in the background, at the
worst practically non-existent. But we are so to democratize our
industrial and our political methods that all will have a share in
policy and in responsibility. Exhortation to good citizenship is
useless. We get good citizenship by creating those forms within which
good citizenship can operate, by making it possible to acquire the habit
of good citizenship by the practice of good citizenship.
The neighborhood group gives the best opportunity for the training and
for the practice of citizenship. The leader of a neighborhood group
should be able to help every one discover his greatest ability, he
should see the stimulus to apply, the path of approach, that the
constituents of his neighborhood should not merely serve, but should
serve in exactly that way which will best fit themselves into the
community’s needs. The system of war registration where men and women
record what they are best able to do, might, through the medium of the
neighborhood group, be applied to the whole country. The chief object of
neighborhood organization is not to right wrongs, as is often supposed,
but to found more firmly and build more widely the right.
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