The New State

# SUMMARY
Mary Parker Follett's "The New State" discusses the need for group organization to replace traditional political systems for true democracy.

# IDEAS
- Politics must be vitalized by a new method.
- Democracy should transcend majority rule and represent genuine collective will.
- Individual powers are released through group organization.
- The group principle emphasizes creating a common idea.
- Genuine democracy involves the direct participation and responsibility of every citizen.
- Traditional political systems are outdated and ineffective.
- Democracy requires individuals to learn how to govern themselves.
- Self-organization and group dynamics are essential for effective democracy.
- Group life creates new ideas through collective thought.
- The essence of democracy is creating a genuine collective will.
- Every individual is part of the state's expression.
- Social progress relies on the unification of differences.
- Democracy is not a sum of individual votes but a genuine union of true individuals.
- Effective politics should be creative, not just regulatory.
- The group process requires every member's active and constructive participation.
- Group organization substitutes intention for accident in politics.
- True collective thinking expands life and reveals the secret of wholeness.
- Differences must be integrated, not annihilated or absorbed.
- Political science must be based on the study of group dynamics and laws of association.
- The process of many becoming one is a psychological and spiritual transformation.

# QUOTES
- "Democracy is not worked out in the polling booths; it is brought forth in a genuine collective will."
- "We must learn a speech that is free; we are not given rights, we create rights."
- "The individual is not to facilitate agreement by courteously waiving his own point of view."
- "Compromise is still on the same plane as fighting."
- "There is nothing so democratic as the production of a genuine group will."
- "To await 'variation-giving' individuals would be to make life a mere chance."
- "The unifying of opposites is the eternal process."
- "Difference as difference is non-existent. There is only difference which carries within itself the power of unifying."
- "Private life is to be public life."
- "The essential value of the new psychology is that it carries enfolded within it the obligation upon every man to live the New Life."
- "The group must always dictate the modes of activity for the individual."
- "Politics have one task only—to create."
- "The principle of democracy may be the underlying unity of men, the method of democracy must be that which allows the quickest response of our daily life to the common faith of men."
- "No government will be successful, no government will endure, which does not rest on the individual."
- "The power of our corporations depends upon this capability of men to interknit themselves into such genuine relations that a new personality is thereby evolved."
- "Every difference which is ignored feeds on society and eventually corrupts it."

# FACTS
- Mary Parker Follett wrote "The New State" in 1918.
- She emphasizes group organization as the new method of politics.
- Follett critiques traditional representative government and majority rule.
- She argues for a psychological process of self-government.
- The book discusses the collective will and true democracy.
- Follett's ideas on group dynamics predate modern social and organizational psychology.
- The group process creates new ideas through interpenetration of individual thoughts.
- Follett sees individual freedom as a product of group life.
- The book critiques the inefficacy of ballot-box democracy.
- Follett's work focuses on the interrelation of individual and group within politics.
- She emphasizes the role of intention and organized purpose in political life.
- Group organization is seen as essential for political and social progress.
- Follett integrates the concepts of social psychology into political science.
- The book argues for continuous political activity to create the state.
- Follett's ideas highlight the importance of creative citizenship for democracy.

# REFERENCES
- "The New State—Group Organization, the Solution to Popular Government" (1918)
- "Community Is a Process" (1919)
- "Creative Experience" (1924)
- "Dynamic Administration: The Collected Papers of Mary Parker Follett" (1942)
- "Freedom and Coordination: Lectures in Business Organization" (1949)
- Aristotle and Kant’s philosophical principles applied in modern context
- William McDougall’s "Social Psychology"
- Concepts from Heraclitus and William James on unity and interpenetration
- Studies on syndicalism, international relations, and industrial organization

# RECOMMENDATIONS
- Embrace group organization for political and social systems.
- Focus on creating genuine collective will through group processes.
- Encourage active and constructive participation in group settings.
- Integrate differences to achieve unity and social progress.
- Shift from traditional representative government to direct, self-organized governance.
- Develop new political methods that reflect psychological understanding of group dynamics.
- Foster environments that support collective thought and creativity.
- Prioritize intention and organized purpose in political practices.
- Recognize the interrelation of individual and group within democracy.
- Promote continuous political activity for an evolving state.
- Use social psychology principles to inform political science.
- Encourage every individual to contribute to group ideas and processes.
- Support creative citizenship as the foundation of democracy.
- Implement political structures that allow quick responses to common faith and needs.
- Understand and apply the unifying spirit inherent in differences.

Group Organization and Integration

Democracy through Active Citizenship

The Law of the Situation

Functional Authority and Power-Sharing

The Unity Principle

Employee Empowerment and Autonomy

Participative Leadership

Conflict Resolution through Integration

Flat Organizational Hierarchies

Group Dynamics and Teamwork

Holistic View of Organizations