contest Rawlsian liberalism, Straussian conservatism, and the historical con-
textualism then emerging. Habermas already pursued the counterfactual
ideal of a rational consensus. But at this time he also linked this pursuit to
‘‘motivation’’ and ‘‘legitimacy’’ crises in capitalist states that could not be
resolved without changing the structural relation between the state and the
economy. Here are a few statements that spoke to many, sending us back to
Hegel, Marx, Kant, and Adorno for further sustenance:
We can speak of the ‘‘fundamental contradictions’’ of a social formation when, and
only when, its organizational principles necessitate that individuals and groups
repeatedly confront one another with claims and intentions that are in the long
run incompatible. In class societies this is the case. As long as the incompatibility of
the claims and intentions is not recognized by the participants the conXict remains
latent.
The deWnitive limits to procuring legitimation are inXexible normative structures
that no longer provide the economic-political system with ideological resources....
If this rough diagnosis is correct, a legitimation crisis can be avoided in the long run
only if the latent structures of advanced capitalist societies are transformed or if the
pressure for legitimation... can be removed.
From this reXection [a critique of decisionism and conventionalism] it follows that
we cannot explain the validity claim of norms without recourse to rationally motiv-
ated agreement or at least to the conviction that consensus on a recommended norm
could be brought aboutwith reasons. In that case the model of contracting parties
... is inadequate. The appropriate model is rather the communication community
of those aVected, who as participants in a practical discourse test the validity claims
and... arrive at the conviction that in the given circumstances the norms are right.
(Habermas 1974 , 27 , 93 , 105 )
A critique of the capital–state relation anchored in the inability of the state to
maintain legitimacy and of corporations to secure worker motivation; a
theory of legitimacy grounded in a revised form of Kantian rationalism;
and a vision of potential community derived from a conjunction between
Marx and Hegel. The theory of legitimacy crisis illuminated the capitalist
state, but the irony was that it eventually turned out to be even more
applicable to the Soviet Union.
Habermas did not remain at this juncture long, later moving closer to
Rawls. And the critical edge that drew many to him lost some of its power to
inspire. Many liberals settled further into Rawlsian theory or, later, pursued
the virtues of liberal individualism (Flathman 1989 ; Kateb 1992 ), with neither
group pressing hard on the Rawlsian demand for distributive justice. A
communitarian movement emerged in response, with Charles Taylor ( 1979 )
830 william e. connolly