Utopia as Possible Political Theory for a Perfect Society

In the contemporary era, everyday life is surrounded by utopian images and texts. The term ‘Utopia’ is coined by Thomas More in 1516 in which it is initially the name of his ideal imagined society. The term is combined by the Greek words: outopia and eutopia, meaning ‘no-place’ and ‘good-place’ respectively. Generally, it is used to describe the ‘perfect society’ where everyone is happy to live in. It is also considered as the blueprint of a perfect society which provides prescriptions for the future However, utopia in fact can be further discussed as it has abundant analytical definitions and various functions. In this essay, I am going to start by defining utopia with the studies of Irving, Davis, Levitas, Nozick. After that, the functions of utopia and its ideas will be explained and elaborated with reference to Levitas’ work.

As stated in Lavitas’ work, utopia is defined as a desirable society that does not exist for the time being and a blueprint of a good or even perfect society. Subsequently, Lavitas took a broad view of utopia and therefore denied utopia as a blueprint for a perfect society. Instead, she sees utopia as the expression of desire for a better way of living. Nozick provided another definition that utopia is indeed a metaUtopia, a perfect society where people can freely build their own micro-Utopias. Irving proposed three defining characteristics of utopia including utopia was permeated with the feeling which society has the capability to improve, it consisted of plans for improving society and it is formulated by proposals that are unrealistic at the time of its writings. According to Davis, ‘utopia is a response to the natural condition of scarcity in which people find themselves.’ Facing scarcity is a natural law in the human world and politics is the one who creates scarcity. Politics is about the allocation of opportunities, rewards and satisfaction in which the uneven distribution causes scarcity. In this sense, utopia is about the end of politics, thus the response to scarcity. Sargent believed that utopianism is a “universal human phenomenon,” in which people think of ways that their lives might be improved.

Utopia and its ideas and thought have a number of functions and can be used in different ways. It is believed that many people including the social philosophers overly engaged and obsessed in the past and present, disregarding the future. Utopian thought is able to change this situation by allowing imagination of what is possible in the future. Utopia grasps the wishes, passions and fantasies of people and accomplishes them in superb models of a not-too-distant future. Besides, utopia has the ability to reveal the nature of the present by demonstrating the models of social functioning that summarized the unfulfilled desire and needs of people.

With the above ability, utopia can be merged with the concerns of political theory and used as political theory. Political theory has its limitations including the exclusion of ordinary people’s participation and the inability to communicate people’s desires and needs with innovative ideas. Yet, utopian thought is able to cover the shortage. The radical ideas of utopia publicly demonstrate the unfulfilled wants and needs of people. Utopia can also effectively identify social problems which is a crucial mechanism for social engineering. As a result, the policymakers and bureaucrats can implement suitable plans and policies for the public after obtaining the useful information provided by the utopian thought. Other than the realm of public policy, utopia can as well act as a strong communicative medium. It is true that human beings are unreceptive to dull conceptual discourse but are interested in and sensitive to images and symbols that utopian thought contains. Therefore, it possesses the potential to influence people’s emotions, get them to participate and unite them in the hope of a better future. By doing all of these, utopian thought makes clear and outstrips the goals of political theory.