A POLITICS IN SEARCH OF THE POLITICAL.

The article focuses on the book "Legitimationsprobleme im Sp&uaml;tkapitalismus," by Jürgen Habermas. The book is both programmatic and provocative. Habermas' brings together a wealth of material and theoretical argumentation drawn mainly from the collective research efforts of the Max Planck Institut in Starnberg, Germany, of which he is co-director. In this sense, the book is a report to the public on the institute's activities. The goal of Habermas' work is, however, broader. He sees the need to develop a theory which will serve both to guide and understand current research and at the same time to suggest types of political activity which are possible and meaningful in modern capitalism. Underlying both of these is Habermas' remarkable stress on the power of reason as a tool for analysis and as that which, ultimately, constitutes our uniqueness as humans. His particular project is that of Enlightenment. The analysis of modern capitalism attempts to show why this old European idea has retained and even increased its actuality.