Abstract
Utopian dreams of a fundamentally different world would seem to have little place in the de-radicalized political arena of the post-communist age. This article challenges this idea by ethnographically examining three cases of electoral politics in the contemporary United States, which can be seen as a “least likely” context for electoral utopianism. Evidence from these cases – the 2008 Obama campaign, 2016 Sanders campaign, and local organizing work of the Green Party – is used to make three claims: utopianism is present in the US electoral arena; utopianism and electoral instrumentalism are not incompatible and may “need” each other; and the relationship between utopianism and instrumentalism varies, resulting in multiple types of utopian politics. The article’s key contribution is to theorize and illustrate three such types.
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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the author, GH, upon reasonable request.
Notes
In his book, More points out the etymological similarity of the Greek words Utopia, meaning “no place” and Eutopia, meaning “good place.”.
The concept of prefigurative politics comes from Boggs (1977), whose work is discussed below.
David Harvey’s (2000) Spaces of Hope is another example of this utopian renaissance.
See also Rosen (2016:1103) who points out that Sanders does not claim the mantle of utopianism. This critique is beside the point for the analysis presented in this article, which focuses not on whether Sanders styles himself utopian, but whether his campaign can be considered an example of utopian politics. Along with a few others I contend it can.
The centrality of participatory democracy to Marx’s vision of socialism-cum-communism is particularly visible in his writings on the 1871 Paris Commune, e.g. “The Civil War in France.”.
Tarlau (2019) provides an exemplary account of the Landless Workers’ Movement’s war of position within Brazilian educational institutions.
Gramsci repeatedly discusses the need for the Modern Prince to avoid passivity and engage in “practical action”; see e.g. Gramsci (1971:127).
Obama hired “former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson, to head his vice presidential search” and “capped the month [of June 2008] by hiring Senator Max Baucus’s chief aide, Jim Messina, as his own chief of staff. Baucus, more than any other Democrat, was the chief enabler of George W. Bush’s upwardly tilted tax cuts, and Baucus has been the prime Democratic impediment to bolder Democratic legislative thinking on health policy, taxes, and trade.” Kuttner (2008:10).
The following is based on the New York Times’ 2008 “On the Issues” comparison of Obama and McCain: https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2008/president/issues/climate.html
Unlike Republicans in recent years, McCain expressed certainty that climate change was real, extremely serious, and due to human activity. He also pledged to take action to combat it.
http://www.gp.org/tenkey.shtml, emphasis added.
The “bailout” is the 2008 financial bailout. See https://lee.house.gov/news/press-releases/congresswoman-barbara-lee-votes-in-support-of-bailout-plan
For 2008 primary vote totals see https://www.acvote.org/acvote-assets/pdf/elections/2008/06032008/results/june-3-2008-summary-results-report.pdf. For the June 2010 election vote see: http://www.smartvoter.org/2010/06/08/ca/alm/ballot.html
Clinton was also, of course, a polarizing figure, who was loved and hated by many, with significant opposition all but surely due to her gender. Sanders’ remarkable vote total in 2016 was at least partly due to Clinton’s high un-favorability ratings.
https://berniesanders.com/issues/ Accessed October 2017.
Social democracy is not equivalent to socialism. Sanders’ goal of making the US into a social democracy, or “democratic socialism” as he terms it, can nonetheless be considered utopian given the truly far-reaching changes that would be required to make this happen. Sanders’ call for a “political revolution” indicates his awareness of how far-reaching his demands are. It is also worth pointing out that what is considered utopian depends on historical context. What is key is the demand for change that is far-reaching or fundamental, with this subject to interpretation.
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Hetland, G. The art of the impossible: Utopia and instrumentalism in contemporary electoral politics. Theor Soc (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-024-09546-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-024-09546-7