HNRS 134Democracy and Utopias
Honors Collegium · 5 units · Undergraduate upper division (100-199)
Designed for College Honors students. Political culture of modern democracy fosters idea of progress and constant reform and is also wary of radical upheavals. Political culture of ancient Greek democracy made possible two things: awareness of having achieved unmatched superiority over any other society and birth of utopia. Democracy praised itself as perfect form of government, but it let flourish counterfactual objections to quest for absolute, just, and blissful political order. Examination of this paradoxical link between democracy and utopia by tracing its history in works of Aristophanes, Plato, Thomas More, Tommaso Campanella, Francis Bacon, and Charles Fourier to show relevance to contemporary politics.
P/NP or letter grading.
When it runs
Not on the schedule for any of Fall 2025 through Spring 2027. UCLA publishes only that window, so this does not mean the course is gone — check the official listing.
Requisites
UCLA lists no requisites for this course.
Requires
Everything that has to come before this course, not just the courses named in the requisite above.
Nothing — this is an entry point.
Unlocks
What this course is a requisite for, and what those courses lead to in turn.
No course in the catalog lists this as a requisite.