Regieren in der modernen Gesellschaft

How can the actions of government in modern societies be defined theoretically? The authors of the American constitution have already recognized the need to contain executive power and to interlink it with the legislature. This principle is still valid today, but in modern societies, civil society and its media are linked to government and administration in many ways. The question is how the modern state, as the most important actor in politics, can achieve legitimate goals with the government as its strongest instrument. The author points out the interdependencies between government, civil society, associations, and parliament. He uses various examples to demonstrate that the executive does not lead a life of its own. A central chapter is the description of the inner life of the ministerial bureaucracy. Especially the insight into the daily routines in dealing with the complexity of individual inputs is revealing for the question of the possibilities and limits of political design.