ABSTRACT
The fact of the sudden and enormous decline of contractualism throughout the Western World is so evident and so unquestionable that there is no need to insist upon it. It is less certain which of the other two main forms—familism or coercion—of the social bond has profited at the expense of the declining contractualism. The contractual relationship played a relatively small role. The same can be said of an enormous number of the important contractual relationships of European society of the nineteenth century. For a thoughtful person the importance of the inquiry is evident. For a less thoughtful reader it is enough to say that a change in the proportions of the familistic, contractual, and compulsory relationships that make up the "texture" of a group or social system of interaction is much more important, and indicates a much greater revolution, than any change of its political or economic structure.
