Social Contract Phenomenon: Evolution of Concepts and Modern Interpretations

Abstract

The aim of the article is to systematically consider the conceptual foundations of the process of formation and maintenance of the social contract, its properties and meaning. The paper uses historical and structural approaches to the study of the phenomenon of social contract in conjunction with their practical application to contemporary events. The result of the study is the authors' substantiation and disclosure of six provisions of the social contract theory. In particular, it provides a systematic explanation of why the understanding of justice underlying the social contract changes significantly over time. The structure of the social contract, which assumes the presence of a constant (obligations of the population) and a variable (obligations of the authorities) part, is substantiated. It is shown that the constant part in the form of the population's loyalty allows the state itself to be preserved over a long historical period, and the variable part in the form of changing requirements to the authorities ensures the evolution of society. Two conditions of the effectiveness of the social contract, when the fulfillment of obligations by both sides of the contract leads to the strengthening of the country and improvement of the situation of the masses, are formulated and formalized: the level of obligations of the supreme power and society should be approximately equal; the luggage of good deeds of power should exceed the luggage of its not-so-good deeds. It is shown that the first condition generates the property of the social contract, when under extraordinary conditions the demand for loyalty from the authorities to the population sharply increases, and the second condition allows us to understand the long-term existence of ineffective regimes of rule such as dictatorship, when despotism in the face of an authoritarian ruler does more good than harm. The main conclusion of the work consists in the substantiation of the fact that at present in the Russian Federation there is a unique situation for the creation of an effective new the social contract, the need for which has been felt for a long time. The presented theoretical provisions can be used in the system of public administration to form the content of the new social contract.