The Theory of the Social Contract, Structural and Functional Evolution of the Concept in the 20th Century

It is a well-known fact that Russian academic community increasingly appeals to the modern concept of social contract not only as the abstract western theory, but also as the solution to some national issues. What is particularly important to note that the question of the theoretical evolution of approaches to understanding the modern social contract is poorly understood in Russian research and it requires some attention for a number of reasons. Establishing an effective dialogue between government and society is a contractual process that has a signifi cant research interest within framework of the problem of integration of the Russian society. The article is devoted to the consideration of the modern approaches of understanding the theory of social contract in the 20th century, also the article considers structural and functional evolution that provides transdisciplinarity of the social contract concept. The contemporary interpretations of the classical theory of the social contract are formulated by well-known theorists can be allocated five separate approaches: economic-reformist, philosophical-ethic, socio-communicative, mathematical-game, political-practical. In the context of resurgent scientific interest in the classical concept of the social contract, the authors attempted to summarize the various contractarian concepts in the works of famous theorists such as James Buchanan, John Rawls, Jürgen Habermas, David Gauthier and Philip Pettit.