Utopia and Democracy

This book provides a comprehensive review of the relationship between utopia and democracy, challenging the tendency in Western scholarship to assume that an ideal society is inherently democratic. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the book covers an extensive range of historical periods and genres, and places emphasis on an understudied issue in the field, namely the role of Eastern and Central Europe in the study of utopianism. The various chapters reflect on the frequently overlooked role utopian thought plays in the development of democratic political structures, despite the fact that the history of classical utopianism demonstrates a multitude of non-democratic patterns. With contributions from political theory, history, cultural and literary studies, the volume explores a range of contexts, demonstrating how utopias offer both a critique and an inspiration for the evolution of democratic societies. Zsolt Czigányik is the lead scholar of the 'Democracy in East Central European Utopianism' research group at Central European University funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, and an Associate Professor at ELTE University, Budapest. He published Utopia Between East and West in Hungarian Literature with Palgrave Macmillan in 2023. Iva Dimovska is a Gerda Henkel Postdoctoral Fellow at Central European University’s Democracy Institute, Budapest.