Fouʹrierism

A communistic system, so called from Charles Fourier, of Besançon. According to Fourier, all the word was to be cantoned into groups, called phalansteries, consisting each of 400 families or 1,800 individuals, who were to live in a common edifice, furnished with workshops, studios, and all sources of amusement. The several groups were at the same time to be associated together under a unitary government, like the Cantons of Switzerland or the States of America. Only one language was to be admitted; all the gains of each phalanstery were to belong to the common purse; and though talent and industry were to be rewarded, no one was to be suffered to remain indigent, or without the enjoyment of certain luxuries and public amusement (1772–1837).