Entitled “The Social Contract Network”, this proposed research consortium aims at bringing together numerous scholars who are studying the various elements associated with societal contracts in different types of states, namely democracies, authoritarian/totalitarian regimes, and in multinational/supranational states.

As you know, there is currently a serious questioning of political legitimacy in democratic states that takes multiple forms, while at the same time the autocratic model seems to be on the rise. This calls for serious questions as to why this is the case. At the same time, the EU is also feeling the heat from multiple populist groups that are questioning its bureaucratic drift and its alleged denial of people’s will (which is in return fueled by the rhetoric of various autocrats).

The creation of this network would be the first step leading to the submission within a scope of 2 years of research grants that could then help its members organize conferences, workshops, exchange programs and a summer school for students. As a part of the initial stage, I would like to edit a volume dedicated to the study of key research questions associated with the social contract in the 3 aforementioned types of states.

The Social Contract Network (SCN)

Network’s goals :

1. To understand the factors that generate popular legitimacy for political leaders/those that hinder political leaders’ legitimacy ;
2. To understand the main pillars of political legitimacy in various types of states (democracies, authoritarian/totalitarian regimes, multinational/supranational states) ;
3. To identify the reasons behind the current erosion of social contracts that is leading to popular/national discontent and the questioning of structures of power in many societies ;
4. To understand the current decline of democracies and the rise of authoritarianism ;
5. To provide normative ideas on how to improve social contracts in democracies and in multinational/supranational states.

Three thrusts :

1. The democratic social contract
2. The authoritarian/totalitarian social contract
3. The multinational/supranational social contract

Key research questions :

1. Investigating the essential components of the social contract ;
2. Assessing the temporal dimension of social contract. How they can evolve through time/how they can legitimately be challenged/how their challenges have to be met ;
3. Assessing the factors that can alter the social contract/the conditions for a successful questioning of social contracts ;
4. Understanding the substance of social contracts and what deliverables matter the most ; how they are/aren’t met ;
5. How to empirically test the health/vitality of a social contract ;
6. To discuss the derivative elements associated with the social contract (trust, state-society relations, populism, secessionism, trumpism, "deep state") ;
7. The key authors to understand the theory of social contract ;
8. What role is played by Weber’s typology of political legitimacy in the formation of social contracts ? ;
9. Case-studies.