A
communistic system named after its
creator,
Francois Marie Charles Fourier (1772-1837). According to his
theory, the whole
population of the world was to be grouped together into 'phalansteries', each consisting of 400 families or 1800
individuals. They were meant to live in a common
edifice equipped with libraries,
workshops,
studios and other sources of
education or
amusement.
Each group was to have its own administrative body, but at the same time they would have been united under a single unitarian government like the different cantons of Switzerland or the United States.
According to Fourier, only one common language was to be used. Moreover, all profits should go to the common treasury (presumably maintained by the phalanstery), talent and innovation were to be rewarded, and no one should remain indigent, or be without the benefits of certain luxuries offered by the phalanstery.