Imagining Global Governments

Joanne Stagg and Tamsin Phillipa Paige

Chapter 26 in Research Handbook on Global Governance, 2025, pp 570-591 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter explores the interplay between democratic utopias and dystopias as depicted in science fiction and their parallels to real-world global governance. Using Star Trek's Original Series, Next Generation, and Picard as primary examples, we analyze portrayals of democratic ideals alongside features of fascism, including Paul Verhoeven's satirical critique in Starship Troopers and the dystopian vision presented in Dredd (2012). These fictional narratives are then connected to real-world governance structures, focusing on the European Union as a self-proclaimed utopian democracy that paradoxically embodies dystopian democratic outcomes. Similarly, the United Nations, through its Security Council, is examined as an institution founded on utopian fascist principles yet operating within a dystopian fascist reality. By analyzing these intersections, the chapter demonstrates that utopias and dystopias are not mutually exclusive states but intertwined and interdependent ways of being.

Keywords: Global governments; Utopias; Dystopias; Star Trek; UN; EU (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781789906325
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