The State of Enslavement: the East European Substitute for the State of Nature

• Published in: Political studies Vol. 39; no. 2; pp. 253 - 269
• Main Author: Rau, Zbigniew
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.1991; SAGE Publications; Clarendon Press; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Communism; Comparative Study; Europe, East; LOCAL PARLIAMENTS IN THE USSR (NOT THE SOVIET PEOPLE); Nature; Political science; Political Systems; POLITICAL THEORY; SLAVERY; STATE OF NATURE; Eastern Europe
• ISSN: 0032-3217; 1467-9248
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1991.tb01366.x

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 have common 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 Active 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