Kritik der Politik als Politikwissenschaft?

Abstract

According to most of the present exponents of a critical theory of the state, the recent transformations in statehood have to be analyzed as results of social struggle und political strategies. But most of them lack a social theory of the specific historical character of heteronomy and the relationship between structure and agency in capitalism. Therefore they tend to overestimate the degree of social contingency and the possibilities for an intrinsic reform of capitalism. The article tries to outline an alternative, but nevertheless non-functionalist, model of the specific logic of the transformations in statehood which is linked to a concept of the historical core dynamic of capitalism in general. In this way the article aims to contribute to an understanding of the vast historical changes from liberal, to Fordist, and then to neo-liberal modes of capitalism by offering a theoretical perspective to analyze the dynamic character of the capitalist reproduction of modern society.