The CSJ is embarking on a new area of research into the state of the British social contract: what, if it exists at all, does the social contract look like today?
To introduce this new area of work, the CSJ has produced an essay exploring the intellectual and historical background of the concept in political philosophy and in Britain past and present.
From Hobbes to Beveridge, the essay considers the social contract in theory and practice, tracing how theories of social organisation can have a profound impact on political policy and daily life. It looks to the lost legacy of British mutualism, a social vision that underwrote the modern welfare state only to be destroyed by it. Finally, it asks if this tradition could be revived as part of a new “social compact”.
