Rethinking the social contract in a regional integration dimension (The European Union): A response to the 2024 Montesquieu Lecture by Prof. Tsilly Dagan

Prof. Dagan argues that globalization has compromised the capacity of the states to provide public goods to their citizens due to fierce competition to attract resources and people. Such race-to-the-bottom jeopardizes the social contract since the decrease in tax collection prevents the State from providing public goods. In my comments on Prof. Dagan’s 2024 Montesquieu Lecture, I will look beyond the state’s borders to argue that the regional integration processes, as the EU polity, could provide for an alternative social contract that corrects the harmful effects of globalization. In my view, the EU supranational project redefines the relationship between the polity and its constituents under the prism of EU citizenship. In doing so, the EU can provide public goods reaching individuals excluded from national welfare.