ABSTRACT
Although the eradication of private property is the single most important aspect of Thomas More’s Utopia, the emphasis he places on democratic governance is also noteworthy, if somewhat less radically rendered. Typically, More’s Utopia embraces contradictory stances about how Utopia should be governed: at one turn, it commends a form of authoritarianism in the way it sets out the need to impose specific limitations on people’s freedom of movement; at another, it advocates the establishment of a variety of elective local assemblies which nominate individuals to serve as senators on a council of the whole island headed by a chief executive.
