Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cox, Professor Chandran Kukathas | A discussion of the competing utopian ideas of prominent LSE figures set in the context of the history of 20th century thought and literature, as well as in contemporary debates about politics across Europe. Friedrich Hayek, Karl Popper and Michael Oakeshott versus Harold Laski, RH Tawney and the founders of the School: the Webbs. What impact did their alternative visions have on British politics? Why did this debate have global significance? And who 'won' in the end? Michael Cox is Director of LSE IDEAS. Chandran Kukathas is Head of the Department of Government at LSE. Simon Glendinning (@lonanglo) is Professor of European Philosophy at LSE and Director of the Forum for European Philosophy. The Department of Government (@LSEGovernment) at LSE, is one of the largest political science departments in the UK. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) was established in 1991 as a dedicated centre for the interdisciplinary study of processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector. LSE IDEAS (@LSEIDEAS) is a foreign policy think-tank within LSE's Institute for Global Affairs.