Rethinking utopianism, international relations theory, and marginalization of Africa in global politics

Many studies on utopianism tend to critique known political models such as capitalism, democracy, socialism, and dictatorship. While none of these models provide a perfect political environment, utopianism seems to be the answer to prevent all political abuses. From public administration point of view, the harmonious co-existence of all political models without any interference may help to conceptualise a potential change in our current hostile global political environment and limit the marginalisation of other societies as presented in the international relations literature. Modernisation theories, debatably, have assumed that the principles of modern political administration will become more important than other traditional institutions yet these theories, which are ascribed nonrepresentational do not consider the practical realities of the consumers of those theories. Utopianism therefore is a myth, which can only be inspirational but not pragmatically achievable because of its intangible proposed theories. This paper focuses on international relations theory and the marginalisation of Africa in the context of the utopian debate. It concludes that in the absence of clear acceptable universal respect for all nations, cultures, and religions the quest for utopianism will continue to be a mere academic discourse.