Homo Empathicus

"How societies can preserve democracy with a human-directed social contractIn Homo Empathicus, Alexander Görlach interprets thecurrent crisis of democracy and how to respond to it. The book's focus on the 2007-2008 global financial crisis underscores how the promises of liberal democracy were repeatedly broken by financial and political elites, with a backlash emerging in the form of "us-against-them" populism. By undermining the hopes and livelihoods of millions of people, the crisis created its own narrative, with consequences capable of causing lasting damage to the liberal world order.To restore the values of liberal democracy, Görlach proposes a "truly human social contract" supported by a narrative of empathy. The basis of such a contract is a new view of civil and social rights asan expression of human dignity, with economic factors understood as moral concerns, not just as a matter of who gets the most."