Introduction

While the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about great suffering, particularly for disadvantaged families and individuals, it has also stimulated a remarkable upswing in mutual aid, community activism and caring behaviours. In countless cities and communities across the world, a blossoming of human kindness has led to the creation of many new forms of caring and help – from energetic new neighbourhood support networks, through fund raising for a multitude of different social projects, to teams of volunteers making face masks and surgical gowns for doctors, nurses and care workers. This extraordinary outpouring of goodwill is heart warming and, hopefully, we can build on this civic altruism in the future.

The importance of caring for others and creating inclusive forms of government to serve public purpose was recognized over 250 years ago by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Published in 1762, his far-sighted book The Social Contract provides many valuable insights on social solidarity and civic virtue, as well as a robust critique of selfish individualism. Rousseau was an early advocate of good governance, arguing: ‘The better the state is constituted, the more does public business take precedence over private in the minds of the citizens’. For Rousseau, a successful society is one in which citizens care about other people and are actively engaged in the process of public decision making: ‘As soon as public service ceases to be the main concern of the citizens and they come to prefer to serve the state with their purse rather than their person, the state is already close to ruin’.

Rousseau is, in effect, saying that it is not enough to be law abiding and pay your taxes. Rather, in a well-run city-state – city-states were enormously important in his day – everyone ‘hastens to the assemblies’ and contributes to public life. Were he alive today, Rousseau would no doubt have great difficulty in comprehending the behaviour of the many modern multinational companies that seek to avoid paying appropriate taxes to the countries where their business activities are located. These companies do not even pass the most basic test of civic virtue.