Next Social Contract Initiative
 

Crafting a New Framework for the 21st Century

Click here for this reportAmerica's social contract -- the complex, largely unwritten deal between workers, employers, and government that gives individuals the security they need to navigate a dynamic economy -- is eroding. Reliable pension plans are a thing of the past, the number of Americans without health coverage is quickly approaching 50 million, real wages are stagnant, income and wealth inequality has reached record levels, and more families are falling out of the middle class than are rising into it.

A new social contract is needed -- one designed to support entrepreneurship, encourage growth and shared prosperity, and support individuals and families not as employees, but as citizens.

New America's Next Social Contract Initiative aims to make this vision a reality. Americans face a profound opportunity to seize the reins of our politics and restore balance to the social contract. New America has already outlined vital first steps -- both conceptually and on the cornerstone issue of health care -- for that long and difficult process.

Two documents produced early on in in the Initaitive provide a strong foundation for our work.  Mark Schmitt's The American Social Contract: From Drift to Mastery narrates the evolution of the social contract and offers principles for its renewal.  A Citizen-Based Social Contract, by Michael Lind, makes the case for direct, individual access to the social goods necessary to achieve economic security and economic opportunity--the twin goals of the social contract.  

Of course, the practical application of these theories is an important component of the Next Social Contract Initaitive.  In this regard, we have worked closely with New America's Health Policy Program as they have taken a leading role in advancing healthcare reform legislation at the state and federal level.  On July 20, 2007, at an event co-sponsored by the Initiative, Dr Len Nichols released a proposal for sustainable, systemwide reform, which embraced many of the principles of the Next Social Contract Initative.  This combination of a strong policy idea supported by sound analysis and a well-grounded vision for change will continue to be a model for New America and the Next Social Contract Initiative. 

To learn more about the Initiative, see below.

 

Recent, NSC-Related Commentary by New America Staff

  • New America Health Policy Program Director Len Nichols is featured in this LA Times article on his just-released study on employer healthcare costs and their effect on American competitiveness.  The bottom line, rising health care costs threaten the ability of American busineeses to compete in an increasingly globalized world and threaten the stability of middle-class jobs.
  • In Newsweek's May 5 issue, NAF Whitehead Senior Fellow Michael Lind argues that the choice between political parties for white, working-class voters is not as clear cut as some have suggested.  Click here to read Winning Over the Values Voters.
  • NAF Senior Fellow Mark Schmitt examines Senator John McCain's reformer credentials in  Maverick or Maneuverer? on The American Prospect's web site.
  • NAF Fellow and Next Social Contract contributor Reihan Salam suggests that Senator Hillary Clinton's tactics in the recent Pennsylvania primary may offer insight for the McCain campaign and their effort to win blue collar voters in November.  Go For the Bitter Vote appears in the May 5 edition of The Weekly Standard.
  • NAF Senior Fellow Mark Schmitt sees Barack Obama's comments in San Francisco,  and the subsequent responses they generated, as a prism for viewing economic policy over the last 16 years.  He also offers thoughts on what must be done to give real hope to economically-depressed regions in What's the Matter with Bitterness on the American Prospect's web site.
  • Whitehead Senior Fellow Michael Lind takes on Barack Obama's recent comments in The Rubes and the Elites on Salon.com.
  • In Don't Spend Your Tax Rebate!, Reid Cramer, Research Director of New America's Asset Building Program highlights a proposal by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) to reward lower-income individuals for putting their tax rebates toward savings.

A New Narrative

Through a program of research and analysis, the Next Social Contract Initiative will construct a meta-narrative to help us understand how the American social contract has evolved, why it fails to meet our needs today, and how we can reinvent it for the conditions of a largely postindustrial and increasingly diverse society. Without an understanding of the evolution of our social contract, major institutional reform will be difficult at best and impossible at worst.

The meta-narrative will have two main dimensions. The first will show how new institutional arrangements are better suited to today's social and economic realities than the patchwork policies left over from our recent past. The second will explain why such new arrangements reflect shared American values while making the American public more secure and our society both stronger and healthier.

Articles

ArticleDate
What's the Matter With Bitterness?April 16, 2008
Obama-ism Without ObamaApril 1, 2008
Democratizing CapitalMarch 20, 2008
America Still WorksFebruary 1, 2008
Economic DiversificationDecember 31, 2007
The Moral Equivalent of OptimismNovember 16, 2007
Don't Throw Baby Bonds Out With BathNovember 1, 2007
Forget Easy MoneyOctober 7, 2007
Five Myths About Sick Old EuropeOctober 7, 2007
Public Investment WorksSeptember 30, 2007

Core Principles

With this narrative as a point of departure, the initiative will identify principles on which a new social contract should be based. These guiding principles will reflect the values and aspirations of the great majority of the American people.

They will define the respective responsibilities of the main parties to any social contract. And they will define the risks against which individuals need to be insured, the benefits we should expect government to provide, and how the costs for these social protections should be shared among the primary sectors of society. If the next social contract is to offer a new approach to providing both basic economic security and economic opportunity for all Americans, it will have to be:

  • Citizen-Based
  • Lifelong
  • Responsibility-Based
  • Family-Based
  • Asset-Based
  • Pro-Growth
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Upcoming and Recent Events

On April 18, NSC Research Director Phillip Longman hosted a discussion on the serious domestic and foreign policy reprecussions of the aging of societies, with the authors of The Graying of the Great Powers: Demographics and Geopolitics in the 21st Century.  Longman has written extensively on the issue, most recently in his book The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity And What to Do About It.  It examines how the rapid yet uneven fall in birth rates around the globe is affecting the balance of power between nations and influencing the global economy and culture.

On April 2, the Next Social Contract Initiaitive was proud to co-host Illusions and Delusions About the US Economy, an event put together by Steve Clemons, Director of NAF's American Strategy Program.  The event focused on the need for a long-term economic strategy that will allow the American middle class to compete and thrive in the 21st century. Addressing the issue were Leo Hindrey, Managing Director of InterMedia Partners and a top economic advisor to John Edwards' presidential campaign, National Journal economic columnist Bruce Stokes and  Sherle Schwenninger, Director of NAF's Economic Growth Program.

Our February 29th event discussed the contours of the next era of American politics. With the prospect of a coming political sea change, the role of institutions, the boundaries of evolving coalitions, and the expanding frontiers for policy innovation remain uncertain. Mark Schmitt, David Frum, Jonathan Chait, and many other participants will offer their perspectives on these difficult questions.

The event also marked the release of two new new papers. "The American Public and the Next Social Contract: Public Opinion and Political Culture in 2007," by Professor Cliff Zukin of Rutgers University, explores the state of public opinion in America. Zukin examines enduring American values and current attitudes on pressing policy challenges. In "What Does 'Post-Partisan' Mean?", Phil Longman attempts to unravel the threads leading up to the current political moment.

Next Social Contract Initiative Experts and Staff

Ray Boshara, Director

Phil Longman, Research Director

Michael Lind, Senior Fellow

Mark Schmitt, Senior Fellow

Adam Carasso, Research Director, Fiscal Policy Program

David McNamee, Program Associate