Shaky Social Contracts
Elites everywhere have always lived by the injunction to enrich themsleves, and ordinary people have not minded very much, provided that the elites protect the country against its enemies and improve living conditions. It is this implied social contract that is now endangered by economic collapse, particularly in autocratic countries.
https://prosyn.org/zWXmTCB
LONDON – “Enrich yourselves,” China’s Deng Xiaoping told his fellow countrymen when he started dismantling Mao Zedong’s failed socialist model. In fact, elites everywhere have always lived by this injunction, and ordinary people have not minded very much, provided that the elites fulfill their part of the bargain: protect the country against its enemies and improve living conditions. It is this implied social contract that is now endangered by economic collapse.