Legitimation Crisis (book)

Legitimation Crisis

Author	Jürgen Habermas
Original title	Legitimationsprobleme im Spätkapitalismus
Translator	Thomas McCarthy
Language	German
Subject	Legitimation crisis
Publisher	Suhrkamp
Publication date	1973
Publication place	West Germany
Media type	Print
Pages	120
ISBN	0-435-82386-8

Legitimation Crisis (German: Legitimationsprobleme im Spätkapitalismus) is a 1973 book by the philosopher Jürgen Habermas. It was published in English in 1975 by Beacon Press, translated and with an introduction by Thomas McCarthy. It was originally published by Suhrkamp.^[1] The title refers to a decline in the confidence of administrative functions, institutions, or leadership: a legitimation crisis.^[2] The direct translation of its German title is Legitimation Problems in Late Capitalism. In this book, published five years after Knowledge and Human Interests, Habermas explored the fundamental crisis tendencies in the state-managed capitalism. Before the state-managed capitalism, states are primarily concerned with maintaining the market economy, while in the state-managed capitalism, states have additional roles such as providing a social healthcare, pensions, education, and so on. The expanded scopes of state administrations and influence helped managing crisis tendency of capitalism in economic field, but it created another crisis tendency in political as well as social-cultural field, which is legitimation crisis and motivation crisis, respectively.