Conclusion: Broadening the Agenda of Legitimacy Research

Abstract

Our study questions the frequently hypothesized erosion of the democratic nation state’s legitimacy in the age of globalization. In public spheres and media discourses, whose important role in the generation and maintenance of regime support motivated us to develop the novel text analytical perspective of this book, the legitimacy of Western democracies appears remarkably stable. There is little, if any, evidence for a general or full-fledged erosion of legitimacy in the quality press of the four countries examined — Switzerland, Germany, Britain, and the United States — over the last fifteen years.