ABSTRACT
The new consensus on a social policy based on individual effort, which Democrats misleadingly call a new social contract, demonstrates in fact a revival of the American dream. In the United States, the Thatcherism of the Reagan administration has reminded many of traditional American values. In the West all politics seems normal politics, and it is no accident that the question of the social contract reemerges as one for the minimal conditions of a liberal order. A new social contract embodies entitlements of citizenship as well as the limitations on power implied by that status. But it is a version of the constitution of liberty, that is, of institutions that deserve the most passionate defense by liberals. While accepting the provisions spurt of years, the liberal agenda is in the first instance about citizenship. Since no less than a new constitutional contract is needed, the liberal agenda has considerable relevance.
