This paper explores one aspect of the recent work of Jürgen Habermas on Legitimation Crisis. It focuses attention on Habermas's claim that the pre-capitalist moral values on which capitalism has hitherto relied have become progressively displaced by the growth of the capitalist economy. This has produced central problems for the state management of the economy, in the absence of an established internalized set of values which could act both as restraints upon economic demands and as reinforcements to an ethic of work. Various attempts to solve this problem proposed by Hayek and Luhman are discussed together with Habermas's own proposal for a rational consensus view of morality which could lead to a new Sittlichkeit. The conclusion of the paper is that while rational discussion of values is important, this does not entail that the possibility agreement is required to make sense of this activity. Habermas's notion of undistorted communication as a way of recommending a moral foundation for politics is not feasible.

Many theorists agree that there has been a shift in the locus of power from the legislature to the executive in modern Western democracies. The political importance of the administrative system has therefore increased dramatically. In this review of the literature it is argued that this has not led to greater efficiency, nor can it promise greater stability. The neo-Marxist analyses of the crisis tendencies of advanced capitalism offer more promising hypotheses. They claim that administrative and public sector institutions cannot meet the goals set for them in a capitalist society and that they tend to generate radical dissent among sections of their own workers. Yet these state institutions also lay the foundations for a socialist society in which institutions are guided by social values other than short-term profitability. While this paper supports the neo-Marxist arguments, it argues that they stand in need of empirical testing, both by comparative historical study and by research into the changes in popular political culture.

The relationship between social structure, value-orientation, and party system is discussed on the basis of a comparative analysis of Austria, Great Britain, the United States and West Germany. The focus is on two central themes: the cultural interpretation of interest-conflicts which are imposed by social structure, and the correspondence between value-orientations and the party system. Both micro-and macro-level analyses are performed. The cultural interpretation of interest-conflicts is traced back to the Left-Right dimension and to the materialist-postmaterialist dimension. Two different developmental tendencies lead to the prediction of growing tensions between value-orientations and party systems. The 'old' Left proves to be more materialistic in the formulation of its political goals; it is also more conservative in the selection of means to attain these goals. In contrast, the 'new' Left is postmaterialistic, and progressive in its forms of participation. This constellation poses an overwhelming integrative task, especially for the parties of the Left.

Content analysis of British political documents. 1689–1972. indicates cycles of political issues that differ from the 1689–1795 (Mercantilist) period to the 1795–1972 (Capitalist) period. Within each period there is a long cycle of changing issues whose interpretation is a variation of the Bales-Parsons A-G-I-L scheme; however, cycle length and issue sequence were found to differ between periods. These issue cycles are explained in terms of the Bales-Parsons dynamic tension model. Cohort succession and coalition formation/dissolution are hypothesized to be the underlying processes that drive these issue cycles. During the Capitalist period, there is a substantial relationship between the issue cycle and party realignments. The latter being a particular form of coalition formation. Thebe results replicate and extend earlier findings based on American political documents.

This paper addresses the emergent centrality of professionalism and professions in the society and political economy of the welfare state. For purposes of illustration, it explores the impact and effects of professionalism in the health sector, which accounts for a major share of welfare state activities; but the aim is a more general understanding of professionalism in the welfare state. After reviewing three schools of sociological theorizing about the professions, several case-studies of health professionals are examined. Then the convergence of political science and sociology is explored for their respective disciplinary attempts to explain these trends. Finally, two proposed solutions to the problem which professionalism poses for post-industrial democracies are discussed.