| Abstract: | Comparing the Soviet-type political system before the emergence of independent groups and movements with the state of nature in the contractarian tradition indicates that both these conditions havecommon features. The situation under the Soviet-type system is reminiscent of the state of nature since it has a pre-political, analytical, as well as a normative character. However, the Fact that the condition under the Soviet-type system is real and the state of nature is fictive poses a challenge to social contract orthodoxy which exclusively ascribes the pre-political and normative components to the state of nature. This interpretation renders invalid the main argument of the critics of contractarianism: that social contract theory is based upon the fictive state of nature and, therefore, upon the concept of an abstract human nature. Moreover, under special circumstances, it permits us to consider social contract theory not only as normative but also as empirical |
