We are born with certain unalienable human rights. The only legitimate exception to these unalienable rights is when people create a social contract with their government for other benefits and protections.
The Social Contract
A social contract is a theory in political philosophy that generally holds that individuals have consented to surrender some of their natural rights (life, liberty, and property) to a governing authority, in exchange for certain protections (e.g. security, justice, etc.).
The theory of the social contract, as developed from the late 17th century to the early 19th century, was one of the most influential theories of political legitimacy in the Age of Enlightenment.
Social contracts are the basis of all modern constitutional governments. Some social contracts are fairer than others.
The Characteristics of Fair Social Contracts
A fair social contract is NOT created by a majority vote, nor is it created by a small dominate social group seeking to improve their position of power.
A fair social contract requires the collaboration of representatives from each of the cultural and demographic standpoints that will be governed. Each standpoint having equal weight and social standing and each representative is committed to creating synergistic solutions.
Design thinking provides an excellent methodology in which to create fair social contracts.
John Rawls, a respected 20th century political philosopher, asserts the individual members designing the social contract must have a good understanding of science, psychology, politics, and economics. In other words they are highly literate and they are charged with implementing a fair social contract favoring the following characteristics:
- Maximum preservation of individuals' natural rights;
- Autonomy (limited government intervention) and opportunity for advancement based on merit;
- Not everyone needs to be rich, but everyone must be wealthy enough money to live comfortably; and,
- All individuals are given respect and tolerance for their beliefs as long as they do not infringe on the rights and property of others.
Creating Fair Social Contracts
In John Rawls' 1971 book, Theory of Justice, he defined social contracts as promises society grants in benefits and rewards to citizens adhering to certain behaviors and levels of cooperation.
Rawls proposed that to be totally objective, those creating the social contract must employ the "Veil of Ignorance," in which the designers are ignorant of what living circumstances they will be assigned when they join the system.
Although, this state is virtually impossible to achieve, it sets the standard for objectivity needed to evaluate the fairness of social contracts.
What is feasible is to compare the pros and cons of the proposed social contract with the existing social contracts of various countries.
For example, would you elect to live in a country using the proposed social contract, Northern Europe or the United States, if you were:
- Born into the poorest economic class,
- A person of color,
- Or any other intersectionality standpoint?
This comparison highlights:
- Strengths social contracts have over others;
- Weaknesses and potential unintended consequences;
- Opportunities for major improvements and breakthroughs; and,
- Long-term threats caused by certain social contract provisions.
Using this iterative process of prototyping and testing the proposed social contract produces a fair, synergistic social contract.
Components of a Fair Contract
At the end of the process, there are two major components to a social contract:
- The establishing constitution; and,
- The underlying laws and enforcement.
The establishing constitution is the foundation of fair social contracts. The constitution defines the generic framework in which governance of the community operates.
The people elect a government to implement the underlying laws and enforcement of the social contract. All laws and enforcement are subordinate to the constitution -- the operating parameters of government. Government is charged with protecting the constitution and all citizens.
Deterioration and Correction of Social Contracts
At least, three conditions can destroy the fairness of a social contract:
- The adopted social contract is never implemented fairly and equally in the community;
- Power hungry groups seize control and subvert the social contract to their advantage; or,
- Other cultural and demographic groups join the community in which the current social contract lacks provisions to fairly assimilate them.
Correcting Flawed Social Contracts
To correct flawed social contracts, the first task is determining whether the failure of the social contract is caused by a constitutional flaw or the breakdown of underlying laws and enforcement.
Constitutional Flaws
Constitutional issues require restructuring of the entire government. It is such a large reset that revolution is a strong possibility, including:- All the laws and enforcement resulting from the flawed aspects of the constitution will need to be nullified or revamped;
- Major economic asset and structural changes may be needed to restore equity; and,
- Government units reorganization and shutdowns may be needed.
Constitutional issues are generally caused by improperly implemented constitutions or power hungry groups have subverted the constitution to gain power and wealth. In both cases you have a well entrenched political and social elite that will not easily relinquish power.
The political and social elites will most likely own the means of correction. The more time it takes to recognize and remedy the constitutional flaws the more means the elites own. Well entrenched elites, stubborn to relinquish power, may require revolution to reboot the social contract.
Breakdown of Underlying Laws and Enforcement
Issues with the underlying laws and enforcement, assuming the constitution remains sound, can be caused by:
- Power elites trying to create an unfair advantage to maintain power and wealth for themselves; or,
- Cultural and demographic groups join the community in which the current social contract lacks provisions to fairly assimilate them.
- Nullifying the bad laws and exonerating and compensating those improperly effected by the flaws; and,
- Revamping the laws and enforcement to be inline with the constitution.
Summary
We are born with certain unalienable human rights. The only legitimate exception to these unalienable rights is when people create a social contract with their government for other benefits and protections.
The basic structure of our governance was created by motivated by fair social contracts. However, over time this structure has been corrupted by political elites and special interest groups.
We can re-establish fair social contracts by returning to our constitution, with fixes for structure deficiencies, and nullifying unconstitutional laws and exonerating and compensating those improperly effected by the flaws.
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