The New State

Before the First World War, Mary Parker Follett organised neighbourhood discussion groups and watched closely how ordinary citizens argued, listened and reached decisions together. From those rooms she built a theory of democracy that starts locally: a new state growing out of the everyday activity of citizens, with American federalism rethought to balance neighbourhood life against national purpose. Along the way she tests the pluralism of Harold Laski, the idealism of T. H. Green and Bernard Bosanquet and the pragmatism of William James, and argues carefully about how socialism and democracy relate.

This reissue adds essays by Benjamin Barber and Jane Mansbridge and a historical introduction by Kevin Mattson. It will reward anyone working on civic education, participation or public deliberation, and anyone who suspects democracy is something we practise rather than simply inherit.