C H A P T E R T H I R T E E N Utopian Economics Utopian economics is a distinctive genre of writings, a group of fictional accounts that can take two forms. A utopia is a good place that is, as yet, no place. A dystopia can be a bad place that is, as yet, no place | CHAPTER THIRTEEN Utopian Economics Warren J. Samuels The Genre Utopian economics is a distinctive genre of writings a group of fictional accounts that can take two forms. A utopia is a good place that is as yet no place. A dystopia can be a bad place that is as yet no place or it can be a pejorative interpretation of the author s status quo and its perceived trends. These writings typically novels or novelettes are fictional accounts that purport to describe and explain a particular community or state. The author usually stresses some principle of organization and control that serves as the basis of social political and or economic structure or culture. The principle may express a particular authorial concern or theme and is often embodied in a distinctive set of arrangements such as the equality of the sexes reform of marriage the brotherhood of mankind toleration reform of the institution of property emphasis on education advocacy and practice of eugenics the hatred of tyranny and so on. In general each utopian or dystopian community tends to be derivative of the author s status quo. It is an extension of the author s own country on which it thereby serves as a commentary. The utopian community reflects that society or more precisely the problems conflicts and trends of the times as perceived evaluated and projected by the author. The community is an extrapolation either to idealize and eulogize or to satirize and criticize certain aspects of the author s experience. The work is an exploration into the human condition and both the follies and prospects of mankind. Utopias tend to be systems of consent either volitional or induced they also have solved escaped or transcended contemporary problems. Dystopias tend to be systems of regimented authoritarian and totalitarian control they also exhibit instability and other problems often of an inhumane character. A substantial historical interpretive and critical literature has developed with the utopian dystopian
