Concept of Buon Governo and a Social Contract
Individual security is central to the relationship between a nation and a citizen. The Italians called this relationship ‘Buon Governo’ and the concept holds governments accountable to act reasonably when enacting legal norms around its citizens.[1] The importance of this reasonable conduct to the political, and in turn economic, stability of a state can be found in the emergence of nation states.[2] In essence, an individual expects a “good state” and the “rule of law” to merge in to “good government”.[3]
As part of adequately delivering good government, a nation seeks to deliver the basic needs of selective privacy for the security to foster an individual identity.[4] Individuals value associated with that nationality provided that the legal status delivers on these basic needs to form and protect one’s identity. This expectation that a nation will provide legal norms sufficient for an individual to confidently form an identity has long been a benefit of citizenship. In recent history, the agreement can be thought of as the “social contract” between a nation and citizens residing within its sovereignty.[5]
However, a nation’s social contract is a dynamic relationship which necessarily must evolve in response to innovations that affect its citizens. This evolution occurs within the vertical regulatory framework because a nation performs its social contract obligations through its domestic legal norms.[6] Adjusting the vertical regulatory framework is inherently disruptive for a nation. Additional complexity may arise depending on national legal norms, such as valuing broad consensus and compromise in forming such.
Regardless of the values within a nation, a failure to adequately address faults in its social contract has dire consequences for a nation. For over 5,000 years, when vertical regulatory frameworks, however primitive or modern, fail individuals in their expectations, political upheaval and emigration occur.[7] And when sufficient upheaval and emigration occur, the nation risks collapse and the complete removal of its domestic sovereignty to a new government.[8]
[1] See Mathias Risse, A Précis of on Global Justice, with Emphasis on Implications for International Institutions, 54 B.C.L. Rev. 1037, 1055 (2013), http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/bclr/vol54/iss3/.
[2] See Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation_state (last visited Apr. 22, 2022); David Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years, 46-52 (Melville House, 2011).
[3] See https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260981739_L’allegoria_del_buon_governo_Siena_1337-1339_Ambrogio_Lorenzetti_English (last visited Apr. 22, 2022).
[4] See Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow’s_hierarchy_of_needs (last visited Apr. 22, 2022).
[5] See James Madison, The Federalist Papers : No. 10 (1787); Joseph E. Stiglitz, Globalization and its Discontents Revisited: Anti-Globalization in the Era of Trump 150-51, 171-73 (W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2nd ed. 2002).
[6] See James Madison, The Federalist Papers : No. 10 (1787); David L. Miller & Sohail H. Hashmi, Boundaries and Justice: Diverse Ethical Perspectives 12 (Princeton University Press., eds. 2001).
[7] See David Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years, 38, 69-70, 230 (Melville House, 2011).
[8] See David Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years, 54, 69-70, 230. (Melville House, 2011).
