TY - JOUR A1 - Snower, Dennis T1 - A new societal contract JF - Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal N2 - This paper argues that the traditional social contract that underlies the free market economy has run its course and needs to be replaced by a new contract, based on a new conception of the “empowering economy.” Whereas different social contracts are relevant to different societies, all these contracts have some features in common, addressing some basic human needs that are common to all. These are needs that every thriving society must satisfy. In the presence of current global problems – such as climate change and financial crises – satisfying these needs can also generate the popular approval for multilateral agreements to tackle these problems. The paper identifies three inconvenient truths for the existing social contract: (i) economic performance involves more than material prosperity, (ii) free markets naturally generate inequality, and (iii) human progress rests primarily on cooperation. In response, the paper proposes a new social contract that can be promoted through three policy approaches: (1) policy that focuses not just on material prosperity, but also on personal empowerment and social solidarity, (2) automatic stabilizers that reduce inequalities of economic power and (3) policy that develops the human capabilities of cooperation. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2019-37 VL - 2019-37 IS - 13 SP - 1 EP - 13 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Snower, Dennis T1 - Toward Global Paradigm Change: Beyond the Crisis of the Liberal World Order JF - Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal N2 - This paper may be summarized by the following points. First, the crisis of the liberal world order arises from a misalignment of our social, economic and political domains of activity, along with a resulting destabilization of our physical environment. The integration of the global economy has generated problems that extend beyond our current bounds of social and political cooperation. Second, extending our social cooperation – on which basis our political cooperation can be extended as well – requires the creation of the appropriate moral narratives. These narratives must guide business strategies, public policies and civic activities. Third, these narratives must be supplemented by multilevel governance structures that address challenges at the scale – micro, meso and macro – at which these challenges arise. Finally, past human experience in developing moral narratives, supported by multilevel governance structures, suggests guidelines for a future form of multilateralism that enables us to meet this challenge. KW - Economy; polity; society; environment; liberal world order; social coopera-tion; multilevel governance; narratives Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2019-25 VL - 13 IS - 25 SP - 19 EP - 25 ER -