An EU social contract of the twenty-first century

Abstract

If you ask ChatGPT what the European Union social contract is, the answer is a very long, not very concise, and exclusively normative answer, no mention to symbology or imaginary is done. The artificial intelligence responds to the answer as probably most citizens and many academics would. However, this article argues that the social contract, as an epistemological construction, transcends this exclusively normative perspective; moreover, it carries a symbolic and ideological weight that explains its use and abuse to gain an extra dose of legitimacy, obedience, or to reinforce specific political or dogmatic postulates. My argument will be as follows. In the first section, I will review the epistemological construction of social contracts and its constitutive elements. Starting with a historical perspective, I draw from this analysis to suggest a notion of the pact of association updated to our time. The exposition of these theories, from the embryonic understanding of social contracts to current theories, highlight concrete elements that I believe are still constitutive social contract theories and may help envision a democratically participated and decided social contract. Then, I will turn to the case of the European Union by examining the pre-normative debates and narratives from its origins to present times, remarking solidarity and fear as leitmotifs of the progressive process of union between previously contentious states. Finally, I end by analysing the need to consider our reality and the way we communicate and decide in the Artificial Intelligence era to frame the new social contract theories.