Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In this enormously influential book, Jurgen Habermas examines the deep tensions and crisis tendencies which underlie the development of contemporary Western societies and develops a powerful analysis of the legitimation problems faced by modern states.

Habermas argues that Western societies have succeeded to some extent in stabilizing the economic fluctuations associated with capitalism, but this has created a new range of crisis tendencies which are expressed in other spheres. States intervene in economic life and attempt to regulate markets, but they find themselves confronted by increasing and often conflicting demands. As individuals become increasingly disillusioned, the state is faced with the possibility of a mass withdrawal of loyalty or support - a 'legitimation crisis'.

Widely recognized as a classic of contemporary social and political analysis, Legitimation Crisis sheds light on a range of issues which are central to current debates, from the decline of class conflict and the disillusionment with established political institutions to the crisis of the welfare state. It remains essential reading for students of sociology, politics and the social sciences generally.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Translator's Introduction
• Preface
• Part I A Social - Scientific Concept of Crisis
• Part II Crisis Tendencies in Advanced Capitalism
• Part III On the Logic of Legitimation Problems
• Notes
• Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Kirkus Book Review

The outstanding representative of the post-war generation of Frankfurt School social theorists, Habermas has gained a growing international reputation for his attempt to reconceptualize the basic categories of critical theory beginning with Marx--even though his work is abstruse enough to be virtually inaccessible to the lay reader. Best known here for Knowledge and Human Interests (1972)--a critique of modern empiricism--Habermas has recently occupied the center stage within the Federal Republic itself, in a prolonged Methodenstreit with the various positivist and technocratic currents in German sociology which share a common descent from Max Weber. Legitimation Crisis is conceived against this polemical background. Arguing that neither systems theory nor orthodox Marxism can give adequate expression to the particular ""crisis logic"" of advanced capitalism, Habermas proposes the central notion of ""legitimation deficit""--the unmasking of power relations occasioned by the collapse of the basic bourgeois ideology of fair exchange. While in agreement with the classical Frankfurt principle that unbridled technological expansion has transformed ""reason"" into a pragmatic ""instrumental rationality,"" Habermas shares little of the pessimistic resignation of the late Horkheimer and Adorno. Seeing instead a growing human potentiality for self-reflection in ""collective rational discourse,"" he points the way toward a liberating political praxis grounded in mass participation and ""consensual will-formation""--a message that has influenced New Left theoreticians here as well as abroad. A substantial addition to what is already a major achievement. For specialists only. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Jurgen Habermas is a German sociologist who studied at the universities of Gottingen, Zurich, and Bonn. He taught at Frankfurt am Main, Marburg, and Heidelberg before becoming professor of philosophy at the University of Frankfurt. His works, widely translated, have made him one of the most influential social theorists of our time.

Habermas is considered by some to be an intellectual heir to Max Weber and what has been called the Frankfurt School. His work has centered mainly on the role of communication and technology in changing patterns of social relations, human activity, and values. An outspoken advocate of the Enlightenment and a champion of reason, he has also cautioned that the technical rationality associated with modern capitalism often functions as ideology and may stand in the way of human progress.

(Bowker Author Biography)