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Report: Toward a New Social Contract for the Digital Economy

Published under the Blockchain Research Institute in January 2018, this manifesto for change calls for a new social contract, one that redefines the relationship between individuals in society and the institutions they have created to self-govern.

It looks at the four drivers of this change—the Fourth Industrial Revolution, globalization of ideas and the economy, climate change, and demographic shifts due to war, drought, and oppression. It identifies such global disruptions as structural unemployment and inequality; failing education, healthcare, and research and development; human rights violations; and a biosphere in crisis.

It identifies the four core change makers—the private sector, the state, civil society, and individual citizens in mass collaboration—and it outlines the economic, democratic, social, and scientific elements of this new contract.

Frontmatter Podcast:

Towards a New Social Contract for the Digital Age

Latest Articles on the Social Contract

The Rise of New Institutional Models and Architectures

The Rise of New Institutional Models and Architectures

Smart organizations are encouraging, rather than fighting, the heaving growth of massive online communities, many of which emerged from the fringes of the web to attract tens of millions of participants overnight. Even ardent competitors are collaborating on...

Technology Push for Change

Technology Push for Change

Over the past 30 years, the digital revolution and specifically the Internet have evolved and grown in ways no one could have imagined. The Internet continues to fundamentally transform how business is conducted, how government operates and how individuals interact....

Demand Pull For Change

Demand Pull For Change

Throughout the twentieth century nation-states cooperated to build global institutions to facilitate joint action and address global problems. Many of these organizations were created in the aftermath of WWII. In 1944, 44 Allied nations gathered in Bretton Woods, New...

Don Tapscott