There was a time, not long ago, when I was convinced that we should uphold our public institutions by any means necessary. As a political philosopher, I was instilled with the belief that our political system, the law, educational structures, and ultimately the constitution served as our defense against anti-democratic forces.
Today, however, I no longer hold that belief. Why? Because it has been repeatedly falsified by empirical evidence—evidence we have collectively chosen to ignore. It is high time we acknowledge this reality.
The left often argues that institutional decay results from the right's abuse of the system. While this perspective may have held some validity 10 to 15 years ago, it no longer stands today. I constantly witness equal disregard from all sides of the political spectrum. Institutions are only recognized as legitimate authorities when they serve particular interests. They are easily dismissed when they are not. Israel's disregard for UN resolutions, and the subsequent lack of meaningful consequences, represents perhaps the most blatant example of this institutional bankruptcy.
For me personally, the COVID pandemic served as a watershed moment. I was — and remain — stunned that people who supposedly understood the importance of constitutional protections for our political system were willing to set them aside for the possibility that their grandparent might live marginally longer. This observation isn't intended as moral judgment; rather, it demonstrates that the constitution never actually functioned as an effective safeguard against populism or fascism. It was merely a suspension of disbelief:the "Disneyfication" of our democracy at its peak.
This raises a critical question: if our public institutions haven't been the constitution that protected our constitutional democracies for approximately 70 years, what has?
The answer, I believe, is straightforward: a functioning social contract. In other words, the constitution has never been truly constitutional. The true bedrock of a healthy state was never its institutions, but rather the shared, aligned values to which most citizens subscribed. Institutions are built upon a functional social contract—and it is precisely this social contract that lies broken today.
The implications are profound. We cannot simply repair our existing institutions; we must reconsider the fundamental agreements that underpin them. This task requires not just institutional reform but renewed conversations about our collective values and commitments. Only by rebuilding social contracts — mind the plural — can we hope to establish institutions capable of withstanding the challenges of our deeply divided era.
This upcoming series of articles is an attempt to recast the urgent flaws and of the failing system into ripe opportunities to build better ones. Our current institutions were designed with time and place bound tools and practices of the industrial age. Today we have asynchronous and decentralized alternatives at our disposals. It would be foolish not to build our civil societies on top of them.
Underneath all this flashy technological prowess, however, should lie a solid foundation. One that consists of strong common values that need constant debate and negotiation. This process of alignment will result in a constitution that balances individual rights with shared responsibilities. Effective institutions will always need to be built on a functioning social contract.