A new threshold for the Modern State. Reflections on Jürgen Habermas' theory

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse how Jurgen Habermas answers the current challenges of the nation-state, which is submerge in a process of structural change of the global economic system and subject to neoliberal policies. Habermas proposes to close the political space that enables the continuity of the democratic procedures and the republican universal principles, beyond the limits of the nation-state. Therefore, the analysis is explained in the following stages: the first part is dedicated to a presentation of the problems that faces the nation-state; the second, approaches a historic retrospective of the existing problems when the nationstate was formed and the reasons of its success; the third, engages the autor proposals facing the confirmation of a process of opening that requires a new close of the political space; in the conclusion, different philosophic perspectivas questions Habermas´ ideas.