Book contents
- Politics and the New Challenge of Migration
- The Progressive Psychology Book Series
- Politics and the New Challenge of Migration
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 In Search of the Promised Land
- Chapter 2 The Social Contract
- Chapter 3 Social Cognition
- Chapter 4 Social Identity
- Chapter 5 The Public Sphere
- Chapter 6 Multiculturalism and Competing Policies
- Chapter 7 The Populist Backlash
- Chapter 8 Democracy
- Chapter 9 Building a Bridge over Babylon
- Chapter 10 Ethics–Politics Morality
- Chapter 11 The Dark Side of Politics
- Appendix
- References
- Index
Chapter 2 - The Social Contract
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2025
Book contents
- Politics and the New Challenge of Migration
- The Progressive Psychology Book Series
- Politics and the New Challenge of Migration
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 In Search of the Promised Land
- Chapter 2 The Social Contract
- Chapter 3 Social Cognition
- Chapter 4 Social Identity
- Chapter 5 The Public Sphere
- Chapter 6 Multiculturalism and Competing Policies
- Chapter 7 The Populist Backlash
- Chapter 8 Democracy
- Chapter 9 Building a Bridge over Babylon
- Chapter 10 Ethics–Politics Morality
- Chapter 11 The Dark Side of Politics
- Appendix
- References
- Index
Summary
Chapter 2 starts by considering our social evolutionary trajectory that saw humans collaborate with one another to bring down prey larger than themselves and to ward off assailants seeking to pillage hard earned resources. The chapter reviews theories of the social contract that enabled family gatherings to grow in size, reaping the benefits of collaboration and setting the groundwork for specialisation and division of labour. It then proceeds to consider the downside of communal resources that involve the tendency to further personal interests at the expense of public ones. This is known as the Tragedy of the Commons in the social sciences literature. The chapter proceeds to consider this implication in terms of the benefits conferred by cheating, which put selective pressures on human systems to develop strategies for their detection and punishment.
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- Politics and the New Challenge of MigrationBridging Cultural, Social and Political Divides, pp. 12 - 23Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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