The purpose of this paper is to examine from a historical perspective the debate on "social exclusion" taking part in France, focusing on the transformation of the concepts of "citizenship" and "social contract." The French Revolution gave birth to the modern social contract theory, through which the political order is legitimated by the mutual consent of all who possess natural rights. This theory underwent a profound transformation at the beginning of the twentieth century. According to theorists such as Leon Bourgeois, leader of the Social Republican Party, and Emile Durkheim, a leading social scientist during the Third Republic, a social contract can only be considered a contract between the society and an individual within the society. Each individual acquires social rights in return for fulfilling certain social obligations, such as obtaining an education, working, and taking care of their health. This reworked conception of the social contract provided the philosophical foundation for the French welfare state after World War II. Since the late 1970s, the widespread phenomenon of social exclusion has raised doubts about the legitimacy of the welfare state. Two solutions have been proposed. The first is the dualization of the social security system, which separates the problem of the legitimacy of the social security system from the exceptional treatment of those who are marginalized. The second is the reestablishment of the social contract by empowering those who are excluded by creating voluntary agreements involving redefined social rights and obligations.
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