The Art of the Impossible: Utopia and Instrumentalism in Electoral Politics

• In Event: 444 - Section on Political Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 10. Elections and Voting

Abstract

The logic of electoral competition and growing role of money in politics would seem to leave little room for Utopian dreams of a radically-different-markedly-better world within the contemporary electoral arena. This article draws on ethnographic data on the 2008 Obama campaign, 2016 Sanders campaign, and local organizing work of the Green Party to challenge this idea. Data from the three cases are used to support three claims: utopianism has not disappeared from the political arena; utopianism and electoral instrumentalism are not incompatible and may actually “need” each other; and the relationship between utopianism and instrumentalism varies, resulting in contrasting types of utopian politics. The article theorizes and illustrates three utopian political types.

Author

• Gabriel Hetland, University at Albany