Forthcoming Articles
Perspective

Thomas More’s 'Utopia' as a Steady State Economy

PDF
  • Theodore P. Lianos
Theodore P. Lianos
Athens University of Economics and Business
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3197/whpjps.63887831800451

Published 2025-11-16

How to Cite

Lianos, Theodore P. 2025. “Thomas More’s ’Utopia’ As a Steady State Economy”. The Journal of Population and Sustainability, November. https://doi.org/10.3197/whpjps.63887831800451.

Copyright (c) 2022 Theodore P. Lianos

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC

Abstract

The idea of a steady-state economy based on the relationship between population and land was first introduced in the writings of Plato (Laws) and Aristotle (Politics), both in the fourth century BC. Nineteen centuries later, in 1516, Thomas More published his Utopia. In this paper I argue that More’s Utopia is a steady state economy based on two fundamental institutions: public ownership of the means of production and democratic system of governance. What makes Utopia a steady state economy is the limited land (Utopia is an island) and the stability of population. Given that resources are limited the ‘Grow or Die’ motto of modern capitalism does not apply and therefore a different system of social values is developed in Utopia.

PDF

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

  1. Aristotle. 1932. Politics, Loeb Classical Library, vol XXI. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/DLCL.aristotle-politics.1932
  2. Baumol, W. 1951. Economic Dynamics. New York: Macmillan.
  3. Boulding, K. 1964. The Meaning of the Twentieth Century. New York: Harper and Row.
  4. Daly, H. 1991. Steady-State Economics, 2nd ed. Washington D.C.: Island Press.
  5. Daly, H. 2010. ‘The operative word here is “somehow.”’ Real World Economics Review 54: 103.
  6. Daly, H. 2008. A Steady-State Economy, UK Sustainable Development Commission.
  7. Daly, H. 1972. ‘In defense of a steady-state economy’. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 54: 945–54. https://doi.org/10.2307/1239248
  8. Daily, G., A.H. Ehrlich and P.R. Ehrlich. 1994. ‘Optimum human population size’. Population and Environment 15 (6): 469–75. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02211719
  9. Dasgupta A. and P. Dasgupta. 2017. ‘Socially embedded preferences, environmental externalities and reproduction rights’. Population and Development Review 43 (3):405–41. https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.12090
  10. Ehrlich, P.R. 1968. The Population Bomb. New York: Ballantine Books.
  11. Huxley, J. 1956. ‘World population’. Scientific American 104 (3): 64–76. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0356-64
  12. Keynes, J.M. 1930. ‘Economic possibilities for our grandchildren’. In Essays in Persuasion, pp. 358–73. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
  13. Lawn, P. 2011. ‘Is steady-state capitalism viable?: A review of the issues and an answer in the affirmative’. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1219: 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.05966.x
  14. Lianos, T.P. 2013. ‘The world budget constraint’. Environment, Development and Sustainability 15 (6), 1543–53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-013-9460-2
  15. Lianos, T.P. and A. Pseiridis. 2016. ‘Sustainable welfare and optimum population
  16. size’. Environment, Development and Sustainability 18 (6): 1679–99. https://doi.
  17. org/10.1007/s10668-015-9711-5
  18. Lianos, T.P. 2018. ‘Steady-state economy at optimal population size’. Journal of Population and Sustainability 3 (1): 75–99. https://doi.org/10.3197/jps.2018.3.1.75
  19. Lianos, T.P. 2021. ‘Is a capitalist steady- state economy possible? Is it better in socialism?’ Real World Economics Review 95: 1–10.
  20. Lianos. T.P. 2023. ‘Population and steady-state economy in Plato and Aristotle’. Journal of Population and Sustainability 7 (1): 123–37. https://doi.org/10.3197/JPS.63799953906862
  21. Marx, K. 1887, Capital, vol.1. Moscow: Progress Publishers.
  22. Meadows, D.H., D. Meadows, J. Ranters and W.W. Behrens 1972. The Limits to Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind. New York: Universe Books.
  23. Mill, J.S. 1970. Principles of Political Economy. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
  24. More, Thomas. 2023. Utopia and Selected Epigrams, ed. by Gerard Wegemer and Stephen Smith; trans. by Gerald Malsbary, Bradley Ritter, Carl Young and Erik Ellis. (Utopia trans. by Gerald Malsbary). CTMS Editions, University of Dallas. https://thomasmorestudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/CTMS-Utopia-2023.pdf
  25. Pimentel, D., R. Harman, M. Pacenza, J. Pecarsky and M. Pimentel. 1994. ‘Natural resources and an optimum human population’. Population and Environment 15 (5): 347–69. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02208317
  26. Plato. 1926. Laws, trans. R.G. Bury. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/DLCL.plato_philosopher-laws.1926
  27. Simoson, A. 2016. ‘The size and area of Utopia’. Bridges Conference Proceedings. Jyvaskyla: Finland.
  28. Smith, R. 2010. ‘Beyond growth or beyond capitalism’. Real World Economics Review 53: 28–42.