The Tragic Pragmatism of the Wagner Act

Abstract The Wagner Act established a right to collective action as the keystone of industrial democracy. In doing so, it also articulated radical conception self: that individuals form genuine desires and attain full self-actualization through action. This ran counter traditional liberal idea selfhood, which took possessive individualism fundament democratic governance. paper places its reception in context changing conceptions self American political thought from 1920 1950. derived activity pragmatist progressivist theory “social self.” But place amidst very different intellectual context. By midcentury, hostility “mass society” deleterious effects on individual choice had repudiated older collectivism. other words, Act’s core provision—the notion central formation workers’ desires—was born dying moment thought. immediate new labor law regime faced Congress courts was consequence, part, disjuncture.