1. Political Utopias

2. Utopias
Represent ways of finding the ideal form of government and society
Term originate with Renaissance thinker Sir Thomas More
The term originally meant “no place” or the “place that doesn’t exist
Associated with the term utopia, there is also the concept of negative utopias, that is grim alternative futures or catastrophes that destroy civilization

3. Plato’s Republic First great utopian work dating from 5th century BCE
According to Plato, the ideal state should be composed of three categories of people
Rulers: Leaders must only be chosen from among the wise. What Plato really wanted was a philosopher-king or a king chosen by philosophers
Guardians: responsible for the internal and external security of the state
All other productive citizens 9farmrs, craftsmen etc.
Poets and artists are exiled because they are seen as troublemakers

4. Thomas Mores' Utopia
Is about an imaginary island where the economy is based on common property ( a form of early socialism)
Work is mandatory for all and the state equitably coordinates both production and consumption
Free time is dedicated to the arts and sciences, boys and girls having equal access to education
Gold is used for chamber pots or buying off enemies so they don’t invade
However, slaves are used for extremely demandin g labor.
Bu More aimed to show that human nature is not based on greed and that people can be educated to behave above their basic instincts

5. Communism
Doctrine articulated primarily by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 9th century
The idea here was the private property over the means of economic production (factories, land, large-scale transport of goods ) should be abolished. This would remove the basis for human beings exploiting one another. As the main defender of economic inequality, the state would also wither away.
Marx and Engels called their doctrines ‘scientific socialism”, for they perceived the attainment of a communist society as an outcome of historical laws

6. Communism (continued)
Marx and Engels’ theories served as the theoretical justification and ideological legitimization for a number of regimes in the 20th century (including USSR, Eastern Europe, China)
Bu there is no straight line of descent from Marx to these 20th century regimes. Much actual history intervened in the meantime. The political parties in power were “Communist”. But the states they led were variations on the theme of authoritarian, bureaucratized state socialism. Far from disappearing, the state assumed an ever-increasing role in the life of citizens. In short, although sometimes radical experiments were made to move them into that direction, these societies were anything but communist