Lecture I: A Dual-Equilibrium Model of Psychologically Sustainable Social Contracts

Egalitarians have advanced compelling normative critiques of social hierarchy. So why is hierarchy so common? Christopher Boehm argues that humans have disposions to form hierarchies, but can redirect these dispositions through a social contract whereby people agree to treat one another as equals and punish aspiring dominators. I build on Boehm’s theory by arguing that social contract theory can be used to model any system of behavioral rules that is stabilized by empirical and normative expectations of widespread conditional compliance. Social contract theory exposes contrasting normatively relevant features of societies stabilized by domination and egalitarian contracts, such as how much they depend on coercion and ideological manipulation. Because social contracts can harness our dispositions to support either hierarchical or egalitarian systems of rules, egalitarians must stay vigilant against efforts to tip social expectations toward hierarchy.