Comprehensive Theory of Self-Determination
Support
Society as an environment
Society can strengthen self-determination when it does not dissolve the person into the environment, but recognizes the person as a subject with values, boundaries, and responsibility. Here the person learns to be not only an individual, but a participant in coexistence.
Communities as an inner layer
Community is the relational layer inside society: family, local environment, professional ties, or value-based affiliation. A healthy community does not absorb or isolate the person; it creates belonging in which one can preserve identity.
Trust and reciprocity
Without trust, self-determination remains individual resistance. Trust creates the environment in which people can act together without replacing, controlling, or using one another’s subjecthood.
Participation
A society is self-determination-based when people do not merely submit to decisions, but participate in forming their meaning and direction. Participation here is not simple presence; it is the capacity to carry public responsibility.
From society to institutions
When social self-determination becomes stable, it requires institutional forms that can preserve trust, boundaries, and participation over time. This is why the next transition from society is toward institutions, as structures that can preserve or undermine subjecthood.