I thought one of the core ideas was that it be about a
person who became disillusioned. Certainly, the
"natural man" in BRAVE NEW WORLD becomes disillusioned
with the future civilization he finds himself in, but
he's not really involved in the political process in
that novel.
On the other hand, that's a core idea in several
Kornbluth and Pohl novels such as THE SPACE MERCHANTS
or GLADIATOR-AT-LAW where the lead character starts
off as a strong advocate of the system only to become
disillusioned.
In THE DISPOSSESSED, the lead character is never
disillusioned by his anarchists' paradise, but by the
capitalist world he comes to visit, which offers both
more goods and more misery than his
non-possession-oriented homeworld.
Of course, part of the problem in picking a good SF
political novel is that many SF novels seem to favor
simple Feudal systems over more complicated,
democratic political systems, despite that fact that
for a feudal system to work, there are certain
operating parameters which would seem to preclude
advanced technology.
I think Isaac Asimov wrote one of the first real
pro-democracy SF novels with PEBBLE IN THE SKY, but
fewer have followed his lead that I would have
expected.
For fun, the Retief series by Keith Laumer are worth a
look--remember the CDC!
Dennis
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