>> I don't really like the term legitimation crisis, but this sounds
>> about right to me.
>
> I'd love to know why!
I should say I don't know Habermas's use of the term that well, only the popular usages and the secondary works on Habermas. But it seems to me that legitimation-crisis theories revolve around meaning and belief, so that the state has a legitimation crisis when it can no longer do the main part of its job, i.e., to smooth out the striations of capital and give solidity and something like a stable meaning to social life, which in turn engenders faith, or at least enough faith, for people to believe in the status quo. I certainly agree with the diagnosis of the state's job, but I don't think meaning and belief are relevant categories. Capitalist social life doesn't require us to believe in it, just to obey it. Witness today: nearly everyone agrees that "the system" sucks, but it still lumbers on, defining existence even though it's outmoded, ineffective, and brutal.