Concidering the paradigm shift in the humanitarian studies, the classical theories of the state are being often characterized as archaic within the scientific discussions. In terms of classics and postclassics correlation, the article substantiates the importance of the development of classical political and legal doctrines in modern government and ensuring continuity in the study of the state on the example of a contractual theory of the state in the interpretation of the classic rationalist natural law by Samuel von Pufendorf. Until today the tradition of understanding the state as a political community, a positive assessment of the state, remains relevant. A compromise between the concepts of the legal and social state is being proposed to be achieved on the basis of the renewed ideological construction of natural law with evolving content, in the context of the global trend of increment of new generations of human rights.