Elected officials have lost sight of Locke’s vision and the founders’ interpretation of the social contract. Government has become an arena for partisan bickering and turbocharged politics, where little is accomplished and the common good is ignored. According to Zack (Univ. of Oregon), when government protects only the few and elected officials lose their moral compass, everyone suffers. When tribalism and hyper-partisanship replace community and compromise is a dirty word, Americans must be saved from themselves. The challenge is for citizens to reimagine change and do what politicians refuse to do. Herein lies the concept of the social compact, in which a commonwealth (a small group) or a coalition instigates action when all levels of government “abdicate” responsibility in a vital area, such environmental matters or racial-ethnic discrimination. Zack views elections as “a bridge between the social compact and the social contract," which can be tantamount to a “revolution” in an era of intense polarization. She reminds readers what being a good citizen means: “Good citizenship requires a moral dimension, as well as knowledge and action."

Choice Reviews

A timely analysis of the contemporary political scene combined with a prescription for revitalizing the social compact that underlies it. This is political philosophy at its best!

James P. Sterba, Philosophy Department, University of Notre Dame

What happens when government breaks the social contract? In this insightful and compelling book, Zack answers that residents must step up to fill the void with an inclusive social compact to buffer the disasters of a corrupt and morally bankrupt government. She powerfully demonstrates that current conceptions of race, class, and gender do not adequately represent the reality on the ground. Deftly moving between philosophical discourse and current events, Zack’s analysis pushes up against the limits of identity politics, and conceptions of the good citizen, to illuminate the way forward.

Kelly Oliver, author of Carceral Humanitarianism: Logics of Refugee Detention and Hunting Girls: Sexual Violence from The Hunger Games to Campus Rape.

Zack’s book addresses a critical moral issue in modern American society: how social contracts and social compacts function in the presence of the changing dynamics of political systems and political parties, in terms of its impact on the issues of race, class, disasters, terrorism and immigration. Where social contracts become outdated or fail, then the more informal social compacts in society become critical to the continued and effective functioning of a liberal democratic society. This is an important book with a message that needs to be heard and understood by those with both formal and informal voices, who care about living in a moral society.

David Etkin, York University, author of Disaster Theory: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Concepts and Causes

Supercharged politics prevents government from meeting its obligations to the people according to the social contract and endangers our democracy. Naomi Zack’s brilliant book argues that we can save it if we reclaim the almost forgotten idea that it depends on a social compact among the people that is prior to government and requires that they work independently of government to create a culture of inclusion.

Bernard Boxill, professor emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill