2. The bureaucratic ideal of The Next Generation
By the end of the 1980s, the world was more conscious of itself and how it was connected. The Next Generation helped that dream come true. The Federation was now a successful democracy amongst planets with rules, diplomacy, and free debate. Captain Picard's Enterprise was always stuck between what was right and what worked, between universal rights and cultural relativism, and between regulations and being nice.
"The Measure of a Man" and other episodes tested the Federation's values to see if they could stand up against each other. Bureaucracy and virtue didn't get along very well, but that conflict showed that the Federation had grown up. Roddenberry's paradise was no longer perfect; it turned into a living system that was always attempting to figure out what was good.