A social contract is a political-theoretical concept which describes the (imagined) basic agreement between the members of a polity on the principles of this polity. The CO3 project aims at developing and promoting a democratic, inclusive and open model of social contracts, which manifest political and social resilience in the face of major societal challenges, crises, and anti-democratic tendencies. Based on its theoretical and empirical research, CO3 generates knowledge on the safeguards and mechanisms for promoting resilient social contracts, which support citizen involvement and democracy.
CO3 develops a model and an extensive knowledge base, which enables anticipatory policymaking and supports sensemaking on the construction, dimensions and resilience of social contracts. Central to CO3’s approach are empirical case studies in Finland, Germany, France, Portugal, France, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria,Turkey, Ukraine and Bosnia-Herzegovina. CO3 develops scenarios to recognise the mechanisms for reconstruction and safeguards for strengthening democratic social contracts, and generates understanding of how new social contracts can be safeguarded.
The project considers the continuous construction of social contracts over time and across three time scales: 1) Any apprehension of a social contract must analyse attempt to grasp long-term debates around the original establishment of a collective contract in history. 2) Contracts however are not just established as one-time events, but must also be regularly renewed, especially in the face of exclusions from the originary contract and demands of new members. Across the medium term, an open social contract must remain flexible, able to integrate previously excluded populations, and remain open to new populations and new groups, organisations or identities. 3) It is an essential claim of this approach to continual contract construction that momentary flashpoints or crises may be used to help build a stronger contractual model for members.
CO3 is committed to promoting citizen involvement, ecological transformation, and wellbeing by advocating for democratic, inclusive, and open social contracts. Exploitation activities result in the CO3 model of social contract; a guidebook in support of this application; and policy recommendations to embed its implementation in the relevant policy landscape. As a result, lay citizens, young people, researchers and policymakers, will better understand the determinants of successful social contracts.