Benjamin Urner, Utopian Socialism, and the Origins of Direct Legislation

Bibliographic Data

ID13044513
AuthorsRichard J Ellis (0000-0002-2690-9090, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume13
Issue3
Pages337-370
Publication date2024-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Political Thought (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2161-1580 • E-ISSN: 2161-1599
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/730930
OpenAlexW4400668086
LanguageEN
References cited14

Historians have long identified Benjamin Urner as the first exponent of direct legislation in the United States, a claim that has been repeated without ever being carefully examined. In this article, I excavate Urner’s career and political thought and show that while the oft-repeated account may give Urner too much credit as a direct democracy pioneer, it also neglects an important transatlantic socialist utopian strand in nineteenth-century radical political thought that shaped Urner’s thought and played a critical role in the earliest efforts to promote direct democracy in both the United States and Europe. Direct legislation appealed to utopian socialists because it offered a way not only to enact desired economic change by combatting concentrated economic power but also to institutionalize the radical vision of democracy at the heart of utopian socialist thought

Capitalism · Communism · Legislation · Political science · Politics · Socialism · State socialism · Utopian socialism · Law · Medicine · Political Economy and Marxism · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory

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