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
And now that association is increasing so rapidly on every hand, it is
necessary that we see to it that this shall be group association, not
crowd association. In the business world our large enterprises are
governed by boards, not by one man: one group (corporation) deals with
another group (corporation). Hospitals, libraries, colleges, are
governed by boards, trustees, faculties. We have committees of
arbitration, boards of partial management (labor agreements) composed of
representatives of employers and employed. Many forms of coöperation are
being tried: some one must analyze the psychological process of the
generation of coöperative activity. All this means a study of group
psychology. In the political world there is a growing tendency to put
the administrative part of government more and more into the hands of
commissions. Moreover, we have not legislatures swayed by oratory and
other forms of mass suggestion, but committee government. Of course
legislative committees do not try to get the group idea, they are
largely controlled by partisan and financial interests, but at any rate
they are not governed wholly by suggestion. In the philanthropic world
we no longer deal with individuals: we form a committee or association
to deal with individuals or with groups of individuals. The number of
associations of every kind for every purpose increases daily. Hence we
must study the group.
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Footnote 29:
A good example of the crowd fallacy is the syndicalist theory that the
vote should be taken in a meeting of strikers not by ballot but by
acclamation or show of hands. The idea is that in an open meeting
enthusiasm passes from one to another and that, therefore, you can
thus get the collective will which you could not get by every man
voting one by one.
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XIII
THE SECRET OF PROGRESS
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I HAVE said that the essence of the social process is the creating of
ever new values through the interplay of all the forces of life. But I
have also tried to show that these forces must be organized; from
confusion nothing is born. The spiritual order grows up within us as
fast as we make new correlations. Chaos, disorder, destruction, come
everywhere from refusing the syntheses of life.
The task of coadaptation is unending, whether it means getting on with a
difficult member of my family, playing the game at school or college,
doing my part in my business, my city, or whether it means Germany and
the Allies living together on the same planet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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