Criteria for Utopian Visions

Olin Wright has laid out five criteria for evaluating utopian visions:

• Evaluate alternatives in terms of three criteria: desirability, viability, achievability
• Do not let the problem of achievability dictate the discussion of viability
• Clarify the problem of winners and losers in structural transformation
• Identify normative trade-offs in institutional designs and the transitional costs in their creation
• Analyze alternatives in terms of waystations and intermediary forms as well as destinations. Pay particular attention to the potential of waystations to open up virtuous cycles of transformation.

H/t Mark Liberman, Language Log.