What is happening? Between utopian populism and the search for a new social contract

Abstract

The first part of this article is an attempt to identify the main structural reasons for the ‘populist turn’. Of them the key one was the collapse of the social contract the core of which was a model of a welfare state. In the second part, the reactions to the tendencies responsible for the current crisis of political confidence in those who govern and of those being governed are presented. The social side expects from the governors a ‘policy of concrete solutions’. At the same time, the attitudes of those who are governed become increasingly anti-establishment, anti-system and are generally and steadily turning away from the uncertain future. Those who govern, on the other hand, adopt expectancy attitudes or are heading towards non-liberal democracy. In the third part of this article, an attempt is made to outline the main provisions of the social contract, which have been considered to be (i) guarantees of the security of the status and dignity, (ii) a greater than before reliance on meritocracy and deliberative democracy, and (iii) education to subjectivity, emancipation and autonomy.