The article discusses the importance of social consciousness and social institutions affecting it in the processes of building a state on democratic principles in new contemporary relations, the transformational changes observed in the relations between citizens and society, and the conceptual basis of their importance in the development of the social system in modern societies. Also, the issue of the importance of social institutions in the process of building a welfare state was separately analyzed on the basis of studies aimed at further modernizing the activities of political institutions of contemporary society and increasing their importance in developed foreign countries, the world's leading scientific research institutes and centers.