Atlas / Organisations / Utopian Socialism
Utopian Socialism
Owen, Fourier, Saint-Simon · 1800–1848 · Britain, France · Socialist · Doctrine / school · coding confidence medium
Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →
Core principles
Rational reorganisation of society into cooperative communities, achieved by demonstration and persuasion rather than conflict.
Economic model
Producer and consumer cooperatives, planned model communities, abolition of wage competition.
Organisation of powers
Voluntary association; Saint-Simonians favoured rule by industrial and scientific experts.
Reading note
Coded 'utopian' by Marx precisely because they rejected class war and force — visible here as a strongly negative method score.
Check a claim about Utopian Socialism. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.
Open in the atlasThe evidence for every score
All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.
EC · Economic organisation · scored −08
Coded −8: cooperative ownership replacing wage competition.
- Documented act or statuteOwen's New Lanark and New Harmony were built as demonstrations of communal production.
CU · Social and cultural order · scored −06
Coded −6: radical on marriage, religion and education for the period.
- Programme textOwen attacked organised religion publicly in 1817 and Fourier coined the word féminisme in this tradition.
AU · Organisation of power · scored −01
Coded −1: voluntary association, though the Saint-Simonians favoured rule by industrial experts.
- Programme textSaint-Simon's Du système industriel proposes government by scientists and industrialists rather than by politicians.
SC · Scale of decision · scored −06
Coded −6: the self-contained community as the unit.
- Programme textFourier's phalanstère was specified at around 1,600 residents.
ID · Rule of membership · scored −06
Coded −6: universalist and explicitly international in appeal.
- Documented act or statuteOwenite and Fourierist communities were founded in Britain, France, the United States and Romania.
CH · Method and tempo · scored −03
Coded −3: change by demonstration and persuasion, which is why Marx called it utopian.
- Documented act or statuteOwen petitioned parliaments and monarchs rather than organising class conflict.
Where it came from, and what came after
- gave doctrine toClassical Marxism
Marx and Engels defined their position against Owen, Fourier and Saint-Simon by name.
Nearest organisations by measured distance
Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.
- Austro-Marxism4.4
- CPI(M) and the Kerala Model4.8
- Scottish National Party6.2
- Degrowth6.6
- Guild Socialism6.7
- Kurdish Democratic Movement6.8
Countries
Cite this page
Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.
Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.