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Utopian socialism refers to the forms of socialism that often predated scientific socialism, and included elements of idealism, class collaborationism, and lacked knowledge of the laws of social development (material analysis) to reach their ideal society. Utopian socialism first developed in the early part of capitalism's existence, at the tail end of the feudal period, and was greatly inspired by the works of Thomas More, as well as religious socialism. More described a utopian socialist society in which everyone works in agriculture and handicrafts and the work day was four to six hours.[1]
Utopian socialist currents still exist to this day, such as Georgism[2] and Solarpunk.
Utopian socialism lacks analysis of economic and social relations, and was theorized before the proletariat had sufficiently developed from the feudal serfdom. It was further motivated by ideas of convincing the landed and wealthy to give up their economic power, and willingly join into communes. Because of this, utopian socialism never was particularly successful at creating its idealistic society, and was replaced by Marxism; however, it still survives in the form of anarchism or democratic socialism.[3]
Utopian socialists often collaborated with settler colonialism. Some followers of Fourier and Saint-Simon wanted to build utopian communes in land taken from Arabs in Algeria.[4]
See also[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Economics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R (1954). Political Economy: 'The Feudal Mode of Production; Economic Views of the Feudal Period'. [PDF] London: Lawrence & Wishart. [MIA]
- ↑ "r/Georgism community on Reddit". Reddit.com.
- ↑ "Definition of "Utopian socialism" in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia". Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2022-7-13.
- ↑ Domenico Losurdo (2011). Liberalism: A Counter-History: 'Crisis of the English and American Models' (p. 180). [PDF] Verso. ISBN 9781844676934 [LG]