The economics of utopia: a co-evolutionary model of ideas, citizenship and socio-political change

Almudi, I. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Fatas-Villafranca, F. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Izquierdo, L. R. ; Potts, J.

Resumen: We propose a new history-friendly approach to evolutionary socio-economic dynamics based around competition between five ‘utopias’ as central ideas about which to order society: capitalism, socialism, civil liberty, nature, and nationalism. In our model, citizens contribute economic resources to support their preferred utopia, and societal dynamics are explained as a co-evolutionary process between these competing utopias. We apply the model to analyze certain aspects of socio-economic and political change in the US from the 1960s–present. We carry out a history-friendly analysis inspired by such episodes as the outbreak of civil movements in the 1970s, the rise of neo-liberalism in the 1980s, and the channels through which America has engendered an ‘age of fracture’. Further applications for empirical and theoretical research are suggested.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1007/s00191-017-0507-7

Año: 2017

Publicado en: JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY ECONOMICS 27 (2017), 629–662
ISSN: 0936-9937

Factor impacto JCR: 1.095 (2017)

Categ. JCR: ECONOMICS rank: 183 / 353 = 0.518 (2017) - Q3 - T2

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.518 - Business, Management and Accounting (miscellaneous) (Q1) - Economics and Econometrics (Q2)

Tipo y forma: Artículo (PostPrint)

Área (Departamento): Área Fund. Análisis Económico (Dpto. Análisis Económico)