# The New State — Character guide

> Key figures in The New State by Mary Parker Follett.

- [Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/narrator.md): The narrator moves through the era's intellectual traffic — French Unanimistes, Ernest Poole's The Harbor, Bismarck's sneer about 'blubbering sentimentality' — sorting allies from the merely enthusiastic. The distinctive
- [We the People](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/we_the_people.md): This collective voice insists there is no 'individual' and no 'society,' only the group and the group-unit, and it keeps pressing the question of what form the new state should take. Its tension is with older political g
- [Léon Duguit](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/leon_duguit.md): Duguit holds that positive law must follow le droit objectif and that the state's right to will rests on the thing willed, not on any subjective right. The narrator agrees — then disagrees, because Duguit separates will 
- [William James](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/william_james.md): James supplies the book's most quotable move — the absolute is real only as far as you make it real — and the narrator extends it: we cannot become the state imaginatively, only actually, through group relations. His ant
- [Roscoe Pound](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/roscoe_pound.md): American legal scholar, referenced in discussions of sociological jurisprudence.
- [Mr. B](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/mr_b.md): Anonymous interlocutor used in hypothetical or illustrative examples.
- [Harold Laski](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/harold_laski.md): British political theorist, cited for his views on pluralism and sovereignty.
- [Hegel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/hegel.md): German philosopher whose dialectical method is referenced in group theory.
- [Edward Fitzgerald](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/edward_fitzgerald.md): English poet and translator, likely cited for his Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
- [Mr. X](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/mr_x.md): Anonymous placeholder used in theoretical examples.
- [Mr. Osborne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/mr_osborne.md): Named individual in a hypothetical or illustrative scenario.
- [Jhering](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/jhering.md): German legal scholar, referenced for his work on legal purpose and social interests.
- [President Wilson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/president_wilson.md): Woodrow Wilson, cited in discussions of democracy and internationalism.
- [Mr. A](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/mr_a.md): Anonymous placeholder used in theoretical examples.
- [Gierke](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/gierke.md): German legal historian, cited for his theory of group personality.
- [Mr. E. H. Harriman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/mr_e_h_harriman.md): American railroad magnate, used as an example of industrial organization.
- [Mr. Barker](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/mr_barker.md): Named individual in a hypothetical or illustrative scenario.
- [Kant](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/kant.md): German philosopher, referenced for his moral and political philosophy.
- [Mr. Justice Brandeis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/mr_justice_brandeis.md): U.S. Supreme Court Justice, referenced for his views on federalism and democracy.
- [Bagehot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/bagehot.md): English journalist and constitutional theorist, cited for his work on the English constitution.
- [T. H. Green](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/t_h_green.md): British idealist philosopher, referenced for his theory of positive freedom.
- [Tammany](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/tammany.md): Tammany Hall, used as an example of political machine organization.
- [Benoist](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/benoist.md): French political writer, cited in discussions of pluralism.
- [De Maeztu](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/de_maeztu.md): Spanish essayist and critic, referenced in political theory.
- [Jörn Uhl](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/jorn_uhl.md): Character from a novel, used as an example of individual development.
- [Little Michael](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/little_michael.md): Fictional or illustrative character in a narrative example.
- [Mona Lisa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters/mona_lisa.md): Leonardo da Vinci's painting, used as a metaphor for aesthetic unity.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_new_state_se/characters