Utopia Book 2, Section 2 Summary

Their Officials

  • Remember how every thirty households has a "community leader"? This person is called the phylarch, or in their ancient language, the syphogrant. 
  • These leaders are in charge of electing a prince using a secret ballot. The prince rules for his whole life, but can be removed if people think he's a tyrant.
  • They have all kinds of open and democratic processes by which the prince deals with day-to-day business, and everything is conducted in the open so that the prince and his advisors don't do anything sneaky or oppressive.
  • Oh, and of course, the senate isn't allowed to debate something the same day it's brought up, since it's always better to have time to think things over. 
  • Doesn't sound too bad, huh?