On Tuesday January 18, The World Economic Forum is hosting a panel discussion on Renewing a Global Social Contract. The concept of a social contract has its origins in the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, who used it to justify the authority of the state. But while it can seem like a useful conceptual tool, it also contains many pitfalls. When it's the global elite inviting the world into a new global social contract, we need to be careful. Who is setting the terms of the contract? And whose interests is the contract protecting exactly? Unless the process by which the terms of the social contract are formulated is democratized, we should be highly suspect of the very idea of a global social contract, writes Jason Neidleman.