Source: Econlog
by Kevin Corcoran
“In order for a contract to be validly binding, it needs to be clear exactly what the contract contains. Yet even among social contract theorists, there is surprisingly little agreement here. They’ll all agree that a social contract exists, but wildly disagree about what that contract actually entails. People on the left and the right will both object that some law or institution ‘violates the social contract’ but disagree about which laws or institutions do so, and what the violated terms are. Note, this can’t be resolved by something as simple as pointing to the existing set of laws (or the Constitution, perhaps) and declaring that those laws are what represent the social contract.” (03/28/25)