Prefigurative politics

Prefigurative politics are modes of organization and social relationships that aim to reflect the future society being sought by a group. In practice, they involve building a new society "within the shell of the old" by living out the values and social structures the group desires for the future. According to Carl Boggs, who coined the term, prefigurative politics aims to embody "within the ongoing political practice of a movement [...] those forms of social relations, decision-making, culture, and human experience that are the ultimate goal," thus aligning the means and the ends of social change. Prefigurative politics are sometimes justified based on the premise that the ends a social movement can achieve are "fundamentally shaped by the means it employs." Prefigurativism is the attempt to enact prefigurative politics.