State, Market and Civil Society in a New Configuration

Abstract

Our tour of the three academic disciplines is now complete. In the light of the problems facing the environment, we have analysed the thinking on controlling the market in neoclassical economic theory, in the administrative theory on the limits of state action and in the emerging philosophical theory on civil society. What has been gained by this analysis? I would like to sum this up in two observations. To begin with, we have gathered enough material to answer the first key research question of this study. It can actually be demonstrated that the indirect responsibility model is no longer feasible. If modern liberal democracy holds to this mental model, there is a great risk that society will not be able to cope with the public issues it is facing. Given the collective dimension of action, it is no longer possible to build a social order on the idea that parties in the market only bear a limited responsibility for public issues while the state is only in a position to control the market by means of limiting conditions.