State, Society, Liberty

The studies contained in this volume discuss central problems of contemporary state order. Böckenförde is not concerned with state order per se in the abstract, but with the historical and theoretical foundations as well as the concrete design of today’s democratic state based on the rule of law and the welfare state. The state order and the democratic constitution based on the rule of law are presented as an important political cultural achievement for enabling and securing true liberty. It is not overlooked that the problems of a developed industrial society and intellectual-ethical pluralism represent a challenge for this state order to which an adequate answer has yet to be found.