Reviving the Social Compact

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, professor, 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 Where social contracts become outdated or fail, then the more informal social compacts in society become critical to the continued and effective functioning of a liberal democratic society.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