Evolution von Staatlichkeit—mit einem Exkurs zu N. Elias’„Soziogenese des Staates“

If “the state” is considered as a historically grown social institution — and not only as a clearly defined set of institutions of legitimate order —, and if the evolution of legitimate and sanctioned state interventions in society is analysed from a functional politico-sociological perspective, than the emergence of new patterns of state functions in an increasingly global and interdependent socio-economic context is revealed. The paper analyses the following questions: How do recent state theories try to understand and explain the functional change of state institutions in their societal context? Can Norbert Elias’ theories of civilisation processes, of the emergence of the state, and his figuration theory facilitate the empirical analysis of the evolution of (post) modern state functions? Does an evolutionary perspective provide a basis for an “enlightened theory of the state”? What follows in terms of a theoretical and empirical investigation of present and future state functions?