Habermas's Theoretical Research On The Crisis Of Late Capitalism

After the Second World War,the major developed capitalist countries in the West gradually established a welfare state system guided by Keynesianism and achieved economic recovery and take-off.However,in the 1960-70 s,mass resistance movements of varying degrees emerged in these countries.So,in the late-stage capitalist countries where economic development is generally moderate,the public's recognition of the state power is getting lower and lower,and the public generally has a skeptical attitude towards politics? Habermas gave his own answer to this question,which is the theory of late capitalist crisis he constructed.Habermas' s theory of late capitalist crisis is a research plan that was formulated for his research groups under the Max Planck Institute.These problems he raised in the stage of constructing the theory of the late capitalist crisis were truly solved in his later landmark works “The Theory of Communicative Action” and “Between Facts and Norms”.Habermas used the research methods of Luhmann and Offe's social system theory to divide the late capitalist society into economic,political-administrative,and sociocultural systems.Under the conditions of late capitalism,science and technology greatly promoted the development of productive forces,and state intervention activities spread across the entire society.As a result,the degree of social differentiation has continued to increase,and the political-administrative system has gradually occupied an advantageous position among the three systems,governs and regulates the other two systems.State intervention activities,with administrative plans as the main form of expression,constantly invaded the economic system and the socio-cultural system,breaking the independent operating logic of the economic system itself,and incidentally removing the illusion of bourgeois ideology.The economic system and the administrative system are increasingly closely integrated,constantly exhausting the remaining mass loyalty within the socio-cultural system.Habermas believed that under the conditions of late capitalism,the crisis in the economic system will be transmitted to the socio-cultural system through the administrative system as a medium,so that under the conditions of free capitalism,the ruling class once dominated the non-domestic economic production process.Political governance methods are increasingly exposed to the public's vision.The masses in capitalist countries have recognized the "hypocrisy" of bourgeois democratic theory.In the major developed capitalist countries of the West in the late 1960 s and early1970 s,the turbulent mass movement was a most obvious example.The economic crisis in capitalist countries will eventually lead to a crisis of people's identification with the state governance.This is determined by the nature of the late capitalist countries.The continuous expansion of the social production of private possession of the means of production will fundamentally continue to devour the social and public welfare of the general public.Although Habermas provided a new way to examine the crisis of late capitalism,fundamentally,Habermas' s introduction of the research methods of social system theory represented by Luhmann led him to a one-sided understanding of the "economy" category of Marxism.Habermas understands the "economy" as an "economic system",and the crisis in the economic system can be successfully adjusted through state intervention without changing the capitalist institutions.Although Habermas also emphasized the historical and temporary nature of capitalist social formation,he sacrificed the rich connotation of "economy" category in Marxism for the convenience of research.