Make sure you have read the “Economic Bill of Rights” posted under “Required Resources.” The first page provides some background and the second page is the actual document, an excerpt from Franklin Roosevelt’s 1944 State of the Union.
Prompt: Thomas Hobbes in his discussion of the social contract suggested that individuals agree to give up some rights in exchange for basic protection by a government. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights, expand on the idea that the people are guaranteed certain rights. Consider the set of rights laid out by Franklin Roosevelt. Do you agree these rights are part of the proper role of government? Choose some examples where you agree or disagree. Which of these do you think is most significant today?
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One of the two major themes of utopian works is the role of government in the novel or story. Because utopian literature’s purpose is primarily directed towards identifying a contemporary issue, fostering discussion on said issue, and ultimately offering a solution to this very same issue, it is only natural that politics would take such a large role in this genre. Throughout history, government has stood at the epicenter of all society and dictated, in large part, both the quality and opportunities of its citizens’ lives. Speculative fiction, when identifying utopian societies and their governments, has encountered societies which have no acting government, those in which the government dictates the entire life of the individual citizen, and everything in between.
Examples
- Plato’s The Republic because it presents the “ideal” society; it does so by portraying society as being run by a collective group of philosopher-kings in charge of all governmental affairs. This is an example of utopia accomplished through heavy-handed government control.
- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ Communist Manifesto stands at the opposite end of the spectrum because it portrays humankind as achieving a perfection of sorts once government has been eliminated and no longer necessary.
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau also was not a proponent of government. He saw the institution as corrupting and advocated a return to a more natural state for the good of humankind.
- James Harrington presents a middle-ground between these two extremist views in his The Commonwealth of Oceana which presents a government balanced among the various powers distributed across the nation (Harrington’s work was immensely influential during the drafting of the U.S. Constitution)
- David Hume’s “Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth” was an essay which espoused ideals similar to Harrington’s: a strict separation of powers, decentralization, extending the right to vote to anyone who owned property of value, and limiting the power of clergy
- Michel de Montagne presents a different view in his Of the Cannibals which states that a society which seems backward and lacking political authority and organization is, in many respects, still superior to that of the European states
- Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward is an example of a novel which presents a highly-regulated utopian state. It is utopian because the large amounts of governmental involvement have contributed to the state being run at maximum efficiency and solving many of Bellamy’s contemporary issues, namely the labor issue.
- If we delve into anti-utopias, then examples such as Huxley’s Brave New World become hugely relevant; this work stands as an example of the evils which can come about from too much government. So, from this perspective, it can be said that a superficially perfect society- everything does appear just right upon first glance- is the result of over-regulation; the price that is paid for this “happiness” is the loss of individual personality and freedoms.
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