Back to the Future: Today's and Tomorrow's Politics of Degrowth Economics (Décroissance) in Light of the Debate over Luxury among Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century Utopists

Abstract

French Socialists currently appear less and less convinced of the relevance of rejecting today's consumption-oriented society and turn increasingly to more center-left models in order to refound their party. (Refoundation is one of the most frequently used terms within the party.) Therefore, it is instructive to go back to the eighteenth-century roots of socialism and note the way many of its founding theorists promoted the establishment of truly social communities set in a perfectly harmonious relationship to the natural environment.As the intellectual debate was not confined within French borders at the time of the Enlightenment, this study will create a dialogue between those who argued that luxury was absolutely essential in a modern society (Mandeville, and later Malthus, whose views are echoed in the voices of contemporary right-wing politicians) and those who, on the contrary, advocated a return to a voluntary state of nature, which implied the rejection of material accumulation and social inequality (such as Rousseau and later William Godwin, whose concerns are nowadays echoed by the defenders of décroissance). This article also explores the most utopian propositions coming from objecteurs de croissance, individuals who side with the far left while adding their concern for the environment and emphasis on humane values.