Staat, Gesellschaft, Freiheit

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