ABSTRACT
The ultimate separation of state power from the will and the moral and political aspirations of individuals in the way of a benevolent technocracy would presuppose that the effects of state power do not significantly affect the fife of the individual. Conflict is allowed to be carried out only to the extent it takes place in political forms which make sure that it will not be permanent and universal. Seen from the angle of conflicting interests that exist within civil society, the bridge is the arena of what one of the more optimistic analysts of liberal democracy has called 'the democratic class struggle'. If the governability crisis is responded to through the resort of governing elites to para-parliamentary, non-public, informal and poorly legitimized forms of resolving policy-issues, the participation crisis is responded to by citizens in a parallel retreat from the official channels of conflict articulation.
