Styles of Communication, Vol 5, No 1 (2013)

Abstract

The advent of a global economy, which attempts to escape state regulation, requires, according to Habermas, a paradigm shift in institutional terms. The nation-state was able to objectify in a new way the “correctable” nature of social inequalities. However, a nation-state whose fundamental structure evolves into a post-national state could take the risk of exposing itself to a deficit of political legitimacy, and “democratic trust”. Thus resulting in an inability of nation-states, the only possibility is to diagnose the restriction of their freedom of maneuver, a fortiori before the establishment of a post-national structure. Within this context, the evolution of the nation-state seems to lead to a political crisis which implies powerlessness.