What role do approaches derived from communication theory play in the examination of constitutional and political historical phenomena? In order to answer this question, we must first clarify what we mean by communication theory. I draw upon a number of fundamental cultural theoretical premises, which are derived from various theoretical frameworks. Anthony Giddens, Roger Chartier and Pierre Bourdieu have already been cited by André Holenstein.1 I would add, for example, Alfred Schütz, Ernst Cassirer, Peter Berger, Thomas Luckmann, Erving Goffman and also Niklas Luhmann.2 As varied as these approaches are, they appear to me, in certain elementary points, to converge.