# V: The Group Process: The Collective Will explained — The New State

> Chapter companion for The New State by Mary Parker Follett.

## What happens

This chapter emphasizes that the collective will is not a pre-existing resource but must be actively created through group process. True democracy depends on learning to evolve a common will with neighbors and fellow-workers, which is the inner workshop of democracy. Without this activity, political and industrial democracy remain chaotic and unfulfilled.

## Themes in this chapter

### Group Process as the Foundation of True Democracy

The chapter argues that the collective will must be created through group process, which is the core of true democracy.

### Rejection of Crowd Psychology and Mass Rule

Criticizes mechanical solutions and the assumption that a new form (e.g., socialism) automatically produces desired outcomes, emphasizing instead the active creation of will.

### Education for Social Citizenship and Group Life

Learning the process of creating the common will in groups is presented as essential for democratic citizenship.

## Character check-ins

### Narrator

The narrator articulates the necessity of creating the collective will through group process.

### We the People

Implied as the collective that must learn to evolve the social will day by day.

## Key lines

> From the group process arise social understanding and true sympathy.

Social understanding and genuine sympathy emerge from the group process.

_Establishes the foundational role of group interaction._

> The very essence and substance of democracy is the creating of the collective will.

Democracy's core is the active creation of a shared will.

_Central thesis of the chapter._

> Without this activity the forms of democracy are useless, and the aims of democracy are always unfulfilled.

Democratic structures are meaningless without the active creation of collective will.

_Critique of formal democracy without participatory process._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_new_state_se/chapters/v-the-group-process-the-collective-will
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_new_state_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_new_state_se/chapters