My definition of a utopian society is one in which the basic needs of all citizens are met, things like food, water, and shelter are readily available, and common issues like poverty, homelessness, and criminality are non-existent. There should also exist a level of fulfillment within the citizens of this society, every person should feel satisfied with whatever lifestyle they might have, regardless of what it is.

For a society to strive towards such standards, for it to ever become utopic, it must make constant and consistent strides to improve the livelihood of its populace. And who better to be responsible for this progress than the populace itself? If human beings can be relied upon to make decisions that benefit them, then a society which is controlled by its people will inevitably become utopic, right? Unfortunately, this is not the case in real life. Corruption, polarization, and misinformation serve to stifle progress in many democratic countries today. If a democratic society is ever to reach utopia, it would have to do so transparently, with systems in place to ensure that manipulation from bad actors isn’t possible.

I believe three things would be instrumental for making this possible: 

First, an educated populus. An educated population would introduce a level of meritocracy to the system. Educated people are more willing to vote for candidates based on their credentials and experience, and are less likely to simply vote for the more popular or charismatic leader. This would stop would-be demagogues from rising to power, and enacting policies which go against the interests of society as a whole. This would also help with polarization, as increased awareness would help members of opposing parties understand each other and find common ground, and finally, it would generate more interest in the political process and increase voter participation, something that a democratic society would surely value. After all, how can the voice of the people be heard, if the people aren’t speaking?

Second, a transparent government. Increased transparency not only further encourages public participation, but it also serves to curb corruption. Corrupt officials are far less likely to engage in illegal activities when they know their every move is being scrutinized by the public. Transparency also makes it easier to identify corrupt practices by making government information readily available, any suspicious transactions, irregular spending, and conflicts of interest will be out and about for all to see.

FInally, a free press will help support both of these previous points, by ensuring that the public is well-informed and educated about happenings in the government and by acting as a whistle-blower when corruption does occur. A free press would maintain government accountability, while also providing a platform for citizens to express their opinions and ideas. This would promote healthy discussions and debates, further increasing awareness and understanding of important issues, and preventing polarization.

To support these points, we can use scholarly and news articles. Establishing a correlation between low corruption and high quality of life or vice versa will be important, as well as correlating greater education with greater voter turnout. These articles will most likely be centered around first world democratic countries, though some can be about more totalitarian nations in order to correlate low political freedom (lack of free press) with low quality of life, though the manifesto will probably be more focused on democratic countries, it’s common knowledge that dictatorships aren’t exactly nice places to live.

Overall, in order to reach the standards of a utopian society, we must be able to constantly and consistently make strides in the quality of life for our citizens, and the only way to do so is by making sure that our society bends to the will of the people, that our people are well informed enough to make good decisions, and that corruption is not allowed to undermine progress.