LEGAL NIHILISM AS A SYMPTOM OF THE VALUE CRISIS OF SOCIAL SOLIDARITY IN MASS SOCIETY
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/2415-881x.2025.99.92-104
Abstract
The article provides a socio-philosophical analysis of legal nihilism as a symptomatic manifestation of a deeper value crisis of social solidarity in the conditions of mass society. The relevance of the study is determined by transformations of the contemporary social order associated with processes of massification, globalization, and digitalization, which contribute to the erosion of institutional trust, the homogenization of value orientations, and the weakening of the integrative role of law. In this context, legal nihilism is considered not as an isolated legal deviation, but as an indicator of more profound sociocultural and axiological shifts.
The methodological framework of the research combines socio-philosophical, axiological, phenomenological, and critical approaches, ensuring a multidimensional interpretation of legal nihilism as a phenomenon of mass society. The study draws on classical and contemporary philosophical and philosophical-legal concepts that make it possible to reveal the value-based, symbolic, and communicative mechanisms of the legitimation of law and social integration.
Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the relationship between the crisis of social solidarity and the devaluation of legal values. It is shown that the destruction of solidaristic ties, the growth of social atomization, and increasing alienation lead to the loss of law as an internally internalized value regulator of social interactions. Under such conditions, law is increasingly perceived as an external form of coercion or as an instrument of individual protection, which creates a favorable ground for the formation of nihilistic attitudes in legal consciousness.
The evolution of the concept of mass society within the socio-philosophical tradition is analyzed, and the thesis concerning the transformation of the subject of law under conditions of massification and media reality is substantiated. It is demonstrated that the fragmentation of social experience and the dominance of instrumental rationality undermine the moral and value foundations of the legal order and contribute to a decline in trust in legal institutions. Legal nihilism is interpreted as a form of social disintegration accompanied by the alienation of the individual from the normative order and from shared responsibility.
In conclusion, the article substantiates the thesis that overcoming legal nihilism is impossible without the restoration of legal values and the reconstruction of social solidarity as the foundation of the legal order. The limitations of purely normative legal regulation in conditions of a value crisis are emphasized, and the significance of legal culture, legal consciousness, and public discourse in restoring trust in law is highlighted. The findings open prospects for further socio-philosophical research into the interaction between law, values, and social integration in contemporary mass society.
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