The bill of responsibilities

We venerate the Magna Carta and the rights enshrined by the US Constitution, but rarely do we consider what they rest on. When smaller groups of people acted as tribes or villages, the rules were made clear by constant enforcement but also within a framework of expectations on people i.e. responsibilities.

As villages have grown into mega-cities and governments influence the lives of people from a great distance, we have become fluent in rights but less fluent in responsibilities.

Societies do not function without responsibilities

Rights are easy to identify and legislate for, but responsibilities are harder. Rights cannot exist in a vacuum. They sit on top of a thriving system where people produce, contribute, and nurture a shared sense of order. You show me a country that isn't thriving and I will show you a country where there are fewer universal rights. Rights require well-written laws, well-resourced enforcement and social norms that provide the frame.

This is not new. If we go back to the societies that our systems are based themselves upon, namely classical tradition from the Greeks and Romans, we know that responsibilities need to be hard-wired into the system.

The ancient responsibilities

In ancient Athens, citizenship was not passive. It demanded active participation. People were obliged to attend assemblies, serve on juries, and contribute to civic life which included defending the city when required. In Rome, the link was even more direct. Citizenship brought rights, but also duties—military service, taxes, and other expectations. Failure to fulfil them resulted in a loss of privileges - a two-way contract.

Something changed along the way in our discourse. Rights have become the first order of business and is divorced from responsibilities. This exposes a lack of systems thinking. A key point that needs to be re-asserted is that rights are downstream of and dependent upon responsibilities.

Responsibilities underpin societies. Societies underpin countries

A country is not just a state. It is the combination of the state and society. States can legislate, tax, and enforce. They defend borders, police behaviour and provide baseline services. But it cannot magic up money or well trained people. That comes from society. Families, communities, businesses, schools and other institutions doing their thing. Society only works if it is active.

The ancient world had public service and duty embedded in both law and culture. The expectation was simple - citizens must contribute to the upkeep of the system.

Could growing states be a reaction to failing societies?

It's my view that states have used debt to compensate for a disengaged society. It taxes more, borrows more, regulates more. It tries to substitute for activity that no longer exists through a vibrant society.

We see it today in different forms. Less favourable demographics, rising debt burdens, a worsening natural environment and more reliance on the produce and productivity of other countries. The underlying issue is the same: too few inputs relative to expectations.

If you want a vibrant country, you have to support both society and state

If we want a country that works. More stable, prosperous and capable of sustaining rights we must contribute to a strong society and state:

• Society: through work, participation, and responsible behaviour

• State: through taxes, compliance with the law, and acceptance of shared constraints

Unfortunately it requires a skill that is dwindling, understanding and being honest about trade-offs. Harking back to our classical inheritance risks overlooking some of the negatives of the system, which were narrow and exclusionary. However, they were very clear-eyed about one thing - rights rest on a functioning base of responsibility. That, for me, is worth recovering.

So to kick off the conversation, here is my first go of a bill of responsibilities:

1. Work if you are able to do so

2. Pay your taxes

3. Obey the law

4. Contribute to the raising of the country's next generation (whether you have children or not)

5. Participate in civic life

6. Use public services fairly

7. Responsible free speech with no deliberate falsehoods or incitement to violence

8. Be stewards for the country's financial position, institutions and environment

So what?

1. Today's discourse is a menu of rights, but little discussion goes into what supports those rights. Responsibilities need to come back onto the agenda.

2. Our classical tradition from Greece and Rome is very clear on the pairing of rights and responsibilities. Our recent decoupling of them, is leading to discussions that seems to have a growing set of rights without the corresponding responsibilities.

3. Putting responsibilities back on the agenda with 8 important responsibilities will restart the conversation about how we can re-imagine the contract between us and our societies, upon which all else rests.

Next week, will be "What did we learn from Brexit?". As always get the blog delivered directly to your inbox on Home | Deciders | for mental fitness | change your mind.