Jürgen Habermas’ Analysis of Legitimisation Crisis in the States of Late Capitalism as a Prelude to the Re-validation of Normative System of Law

Abstract

Goal – an analysis of the essential elements – from the perspective of legitimisation of normative systems – of Jürgen Habermas’ philosophical thought and his views on the problems that modern capitalist societies face with relationship to the expiration of the pre-modern sources of legitimisation. Research methodology – analysis of literature, critical method of comparison of secondary views in the literature on Habermas’ original theses. Descriptive method. Score/results – views presented by the author of the Legitimation Crisis are based on the works of the representatives of The Frankfurt School. Critical Theory presented in their many works has its development and explication in the works of Habermas, with his innovative solutions to the unsolved problems of the fatalistic diagnosis of the early generation of the Frankfurt School. Habermas attributed a significant importance to the changes in the relationship of work, capital and intersubjective assignment of meaning in various society organisational forms, from traditional to late-capitalist one. His diagnosis of the legitimisation crisis in late-capitalism further points towards his roots in the Frankfurt School. His solution to this problem, related to the communicative actions and a possibility for a rational discourse ending in a consensus and the detailed elements of his analysis of the crisis of legitimisation, shall become a point of analysis in further papers. Originality/value – Jürgen Habermas works maintain their importance in the XXI century, especially in the face of further turbulences that await the democratic systems in the European civilization sphere. This work compiles some of the basic elements of the origin of Habermas’ thought, including the references to the Polish works on Habermas that have not been translated into English; and it is a development of the master’s thesis on Habermas’ concept of legitimisation. The paper’s thesis can be further developed as a related analysis in the future papers.