Policy Press

The Gilets Jaunes and the New Social Contract

By Charles Devellennes

Published

Jan 19, 2022

Page count

180 pages

ISBN

978-1529212211

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press

Published

Jan 8, 2021

Page count

180 pages

ISBN

978-1529212204

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press

Published

Jan 8, 2021

Page count

180 pages

ISBN

978-1529212228

Dimensions

Imprint

Bristol University Press

Published

Jan 8, 2021

Page count

180 pages

ISBN

978-1529212228

Dimensions

Imprint

Bristol University Press
The Gilets Jaunes and the New Social Contract

This book provides a lively account of the gilets jaunes, the yellow vest movement that has shaken France since 2018. Charles Devellennes assesses what lessons can be drawn from their activities and the impact for the contemporary relationship between state and citizen.

Informed by a dialogue with past political theorists – from Hobbes, Spinoza and Rousseau to Rawls, Nozick and Diderot – and reflecting on the challenges posed by the yellow vest movement, the author rethinks the concept of the social contract for contemporary societies around the world. It proposes a new relationship between the state and the individual, and establishes the necessity of rethinking the modern democratic nature of our representative polities in order to provide a genuine process for the healing of social ills.

Charles Devellennes is Senior Lecturer in Political and Social Thought at the University of Kent.

Introduction;

Critical times for the social contract;

Violence and the state;

Liberty;

Democracy;

Economic justice;

A renewal of the social contract;

Conclusion