ten permission to use any information tied to an individual who gave it. The-Institute also agrees that no questions should be asked of residents which residents cannot ask of Institute_people. Just as t~e sectio,n on II ownership transfer" expressed the resi- • dents' primary objective, this section expressed that c!f the Institute. As Constitution The Compact, like the U.S. Constitution, is expressive·of a people who have consciously decided to break with the old systems of governance, as exampled by citizen input measured by hours of work rather than meetings attended, and a minimum voting age of ten years. It is broad in scope·, flexible, and capable of adaptation. It has been used to resolve broad policy questions such as whether owners could VQte on rent questions; the Compact states all persons vote on all issues. In contrast to most constitutions, there is a lack of any mechanism spedfied for adjudicating differences. The Compact is silent on ~hat to do when one party feels that another is violating the Con:ipact. We return to this P!oblem later.. As Covenant The American small town has its origins in New England, in_large _ measure due to the Puritan imprint of the church covenant. The covenant was-a solemn pledge of consent arid obligation and a specific agreement .in w~ich individuals stated their expectations and ·-signed thei~_names. If the Compact has a spiritual dimension, it is in the sense of establishing an_d acknowledging a bond between individuals. • • The distingui;hed historian, Page Smith, has stressed the importance of the covenant by noting: Without the matrix of the covenant'ed community, the colonists would simply form collectives;' that is, they would have divided up ' into units of individuals grouped within certain physical areas, directed by external powers and shape~ largely by circumstances. This prognosis is actually a good fit to Corbett at the start of the renewal program. It was a collectlon of individuals certainly depe:r:ident on an external power (the landlord and company} al)d shapecJ by circumstance (the need fonhe arbitrary sale of the village). The Compact was clearly and intentionally designed to move the village from this state to a place where shared ~onds would help preserve it from disintegration. , As the early covenants w~re an 'agreement between townspeople • and the qivine Bei~g, some Corbett residents have used the Compact as a handy agenda of Thou Shalt~ and Shalt Nots.,The Compact . in .this capacity b.ecomes a shield which protects people from the • freedom a~d responsibility qf individual judgment and action. In that sense, the Compact as covenant m_ay continue to function like the omnipresent company iri Corbett's earlier days, providing a set of rules wl1.ich at times replaces examination and,decis.ion making. As Social'Contract a;,_d Legal .Contract The concept of social contract posits an in,strument whereby people are expected to behave voluntarily "as if" there were a contract specifyin~r reciprocalobligations between them and the body politic. RAIN Page 7 The voluntary natur.e of'the implie~ contract does have presence -and meaning in Corbett. Indeed, its presence is sufficiently strong to help account for the lack of an enforcement mechanism. And since the Compact is neither enforceable nor ~inding, it may first seem to have no analogue as a legal c<mtract. But there are mitigating elements. First, what the contract lacks in legal sanction, it compensates for with clarity and visibility. Most contracts are so stuffed with qualifiers that it is very hard to know where liability and application begin and end. The Compact is relatively straight- . forward. • Several ~ttorneys have pointed out that a document becomes legally binding because of what it says, not on the basis of whether it was.intended as such. The fact that an informal document can be construed as legal raised fascinating and disturbing questions about how this analogue could become a stark and unwelcome reality. What do lawyers think of th~ Compact? Some see it as vague, 1.mpredse, and totally insufficient. Others take the position that the Compact may actually be in the forefront of legal writing since it is expressed in lay language. They also add that it recognizes that vqluntary complia!}ce is actually a major presumption of civil law. Omissions · There is a lack of consideration in the Compact of both sanctions and incentives for upholding its provisions. Before we go on to discuis the consequences of these omissions, we will pause to explain how they came to be left out. There was no "reality test" to even suggest that performance could be an issue. In the areas that proved to be most difficultsuch as the stipulation of three hours per week participation per family-wf did no( adequately consider what this would mean to Corbett families over an extended period of time, and just how.high the opportunity costs of participation would prove to be. Also, there was no baseline data available to indicate minimal- requirements, nor did we make distinctions between levels of motivation of the Compact framers and the reside~lts at large. If these reasons have a common-thread; it is that of an unwarranted optimism. In those early invigorating momen,ts, we believed that all things were possible-including sustained hard work to be volunteered by each and every person in Corbett. However, too much realism in the.presence of such pronounced decline w·ould have led to the conclusion that no pFoject was possible. Whether fools or not ... we did rush in. Unexpected Impacts . It is said that no technology or intervention is without its potential to do harm. This is true of the Compact. Corbett is now split over the issue of participation. We recognize that this is inevitable in a planned-change project in which some people do most of the work which creates benefits shared by all. This is especially a problem in a small community, in which behavior is so visible, and especially in Corbett where all available hands are needed. • To some d.egree, concern and frustration have turned to anger in Corbett because of the Compact, which offers such an unequivocal standar1 for participation whil~ offering no system of incentives or penalty. In.effect, Corbett residents are now divided into two groups-a thin majority of people who support arid live up to the explicit provision of three hours of work per week per family, a slightly smaller group comprising those who do not work much, and some who do no work a·t all. . Through the spring of 1978, strategies of pers~asion and encouragement were used, such as house-to-house visits 'on the morning of work parties, and symbolic recognition for those who work hard, such as water faucet "trophies" sprayed with gold paint. As the . height of the 1978 summer work season drew near, it became apparent that this approach would not raise the participation rate above 60-70 percent. It was tihen agreed th~t a penalty was to.be assessed against each house at the time of sale for. all hours hot worked: $10 per hour for those hours less tha,n 4.5 per household per week. cont.
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