Essay Example: Economic Movement and Progression in Dream and Shady Society

Utopia refers to a world in which everything and everybody works in consideration of the welfare of others. The literature recognizes Thomas More as the first scholar to coin the term, attainment he made in his 1516 book "Utopia" (Zuzanek 305). Utopia covers many facets of human life, including environmentalism, religion, technology, social, and economic aspects. This work seeks to explain how the term affected the concepts of economy and its progression both in dreamland and shady society.

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UTOPIANISM IN THE DREAMWORLD

Both the whites and American's have lived with the concept of utopia from as early as the 16th century. In 1656. James Harrington, a prominent political philosopher, inspired the establishment of English country-party republicanism through his utopian book, "The Commonwealth of Oceana." (Zuzanek 306). The work was instrumental in the establishment and design of the state of a Utopian state of Georgia, whose governance envisioned a perfect integration of physical, economic, and social aspects that premised on agrarian equality. The state would practice equal land distribution, prohibiting land acquisition through purchase or inheritance. These ideals resemble arrangements in the legendary Yeoman republic.

Beck identified Eric Russell's contributions to the idea of Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) as utopian (589). The scholar assumed a perfect trading system among the local western nations, which provides ideal trading conditions for anyone who wishes to participate. Edward Wakefield's theory also serves as a significant contributor to economic utopianism. Wakefield's work fronted a systematic colonial settlement policy in the early-19th century, assumed any possible resistance from locals both to the processing of settlement and creation introduction of their economic systems, large-scale agriculture, and industrialization Baiman 255). The approach emphasized the preservation of class distinctions among the whites and the other races.

The agricultural sector of third world nations is full of economic utopianism. The whites invaded the continent with a somewhat utopian plan, assuming that it would help Africa develop up to its full potential. The proponents believed that traditional African agricultural arrangement would undergo various stages, systematically climbing a ladder from stage to stage, until it attains modern economic development without a hitch (Beck 589). Ruccio quoted Walt Rostov's theory that explained this development, postulating a five-stage developmental phase including orientation of the traditional societies in readiness for the process, take off, and the final mature high production and mass consumption as the landmark phases. The whites envisioned growth in productivity, market expansion, and the ultimate increase in national income that would define overall economic development (par. 2).

Mainstream thinkers presumed that African governments would always chart through the necessary steps in the development stages. They relied on administrations to spearhead the shifting of the balance from domestic to large-scale agriculture, creation of national markets, building the appropriate physical and social infrastructure, generating domestic entrepreneurial class, raising the investment levels, and employing modern technologies (Ruccio par. 5). This initiatives were requisite for the success of the idea.

CRITIQUE OF UTOPIANISM, REALITY IN A SHADY WORLD

The foundations of the economic speculations in the dream world indicate reliance on unrealistic occurrences. The most appropriate description of the word is a "shady society," a place that lacks guarantee of adherence to law and order: the powerful benefit at the expense of the vulnerable. Ruccio describes the approach to developmental economics as the West's discovery of poverty in the third world, and the reassertion of its moral and cultural superiority in post-colonial times (par. 11). Colonies viewed development as a way of the masters exporting their ideologies and exert economic and cultural imperialism, and thus resorted to resist the process. The claim draws its authenticity from the fact that even after the implementation of the anti-poverty and pro-growth policies, most colonies still exhibited poverty, lacking basic human needs (Ruccio par. 11). Post-developmental thinkers supported creating space for a local agency to assert itself.

In the 1980s, the Washington Consensus highlighted a different notion about development economics (Ruccio par. 7). Development economics transformed its focus to privatizing public enterprise, disregarding government regulations, and freeing-up trade and capital flows. Furthermore, the period benefited from campaigns that endorsed the establishment of good institutions that would support the private business. This approach led to increased delineation and defense of private-property rights, leaving the whole process at the mercy of the powerful (Zuzanek 311). This period experienced an increase in unbalanced growth among the citizens.

The ideals in the shady word critique the notion that capitalism is the centering essence of the development of the Third World. The capital centric vision limits the radical rethinking of and beyond development (Baiman 259). The idea only offsets through specifying coexisting economic practices and showing how modernization interventions would create a capitalist and non-capitalist class structure that adds to the diversity of the financial landscape instead of reducing the difference.

CONCLUSION

Utopia serves as the differentiating concept between dreamland and reality. While utopia envisions a society whose operations consider the wellness of every member, the situation is always not the case, and every person fights for his survival. The economic activities both for the western and African ideologies exhibit utopianism. While theWest envisioned a utopian state like Georgia that never realized the desire, the plan for agricultural development in Africa, systematic growth from phase to phase, failed due to resistance from locals and failure by the government to support the requisite initiatives. The reality in the shady world is that the weak survive at the mercy of the influential members.

Works Cited

Baiman, Ron P. "The Morality of Radical Economics." The Morality of Radical Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2016. 253-274.

Beck, Jody. "Landscape Food utopia." Handbook of Landscape and Food. Routledge, 2018. 585-596.

Ruccio, David. "Utopia and Economic Development." Progress in Political Economy (PPE), 29 May 2018, www.ppesydney.net/utopia-and-economic-development/. Accessed 26 August 2020

Zuzanek, Jiri. "Work and leisure in Thomas More's Utopia." Leisure Studies 36.3 (2017): 305-314.