Perspektiven des demokratischen Regierens und die Rolle der Politikwissenschaft im 21. Jahrhundert

Abstract

The core thesis of this contribution is that the primarily democratic sources of political legitimacy appear to be declining in significance.The crisis of parliamentary democracy in the West, the political and economic ascent of authoritatively constituted powers worldwide, the emergence of political authority beyond the nation state, and, connected to that, a corresponding rise in conflicting legal systems all point to the fact that underlying social and political developments lead to a shift within the set of established justifications of legitimate authority.In the course of present changes in the political landscape vis-à-vis sources of legitimacy like law, expertise, accountability, and collective identity, primarily democratic sources of political authority like participation and public discourse are beginning to fall by the wayside.Remarkably enough, these changes enjoy a high degree of public acceptance.These developments cause the democratic principle to become relativized in the course of deliberations over good political order; and, to that extent, the question of justification of legitimate authority and with it the question of democracy have been forced back onto the center stage of political controversies all over the world.This has far-reaching implications for political science as a formal disciplinewhich indeed first began in Germany as Demokratiewissenschaft, the "science of democracy".

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