Die Krise der Demokratie - Eine Frage der Perspektive?

Abstract

The so-called crisis of the democratic system which is currently discussed controversially deals with the basic question of the legitimacy of organized societies. Socially legitimizing processes are aimed at the definition and justification of democratic institutions. Those institutions can fulfill a regulating and therefore reassuring function within political systems. This is what defines their importance in today’s societies. Without the support through such regulating institutions, the social structure and organisational patterns dissolve and the democratic system falls in crisis. The question of any system’s legitimacy is therefore crucial for the structuring of all social processes and hierarchies – once a society reaches a status of legitimacy, it is considered as justified and recognized as such. Legitimized societies count as stable societies. The structures described above evolve through different social interactions and distinguish themselves by a mix of social and legal norms which are expected to be followed by all members of the society meant to be structured here. Following set norms is not implied here. Since the principle of following norms only for the sake of social adjustment is not only not acceptable but simply disfunctional, new structures ask for new reasons to justify and prove the legitimacy of the norms. Globalized societies seem to lack legitimations which is where the whole crisis is rooted which liberal-pluralistic are going through at the moment. The reservoir of nationalistic as well as liberal-pluralistic attempts of justification seems exhausted to the core. The following paper is trying to identify reasons for the current crisis of democracies as a concept. Moreover, it is analysing the basic idea of legitimation as a category of Sabrina Zucca-Soest 115 social functionality in depth. There are two basic principles. Depending on which is recognized by a society, different concepts of legitimation can be described. On an individual level, the individual’s recognition of established norms and its silent confirmation to act accordingly within a society can be understood as legitimation. On a societal level, the power that a society has over its members when imprinting core values and norms on them. Thus, two basic concepts of legitimation can be identified: The first one is based on facts to generate legitimation (descriptive approach). The second one is based on hypotheses (prescriptive approach). Only after the recognition of the theoretical background, reasons for the crises can be found, its scope can be measured and a realistic outlook on the necessary measures which need to be taken accordingly can be formulated.