ABSTRACT
Early in the history of Western society, political thinkers in Rome hit upon the idea that the concepts of the public philosophy- particularly the idea of reciprocal rights and duties under law- could be given concreteness by treating them as contracts. A contract is an agreement reached voluntarily, quid pro quo, and likely, therefore, to be observed- in any event, rightfully enforceable. The general idea that the unwritten laws of public behavior are contractual and rest on consent was materialized in myths of an original covenant entered into by the first ancestors and binding upon their descendants. Many in the modern age have rejected the idea of the contractual basis of power because, as a matter of fact, there never was an historic contract. These myths, which appear in many versions at various times and places, make credible- by materializing it- the ethereal notion that civility is a fabric of understandings.
