Political order and modern social integration

Social integration has vanished in Luhmann's systems theory and in the thes es on individualization. The differentiated structure of modern society off ers only complexity, which the individual has to synthesize in his biograph y. Integration is reduced to a merely individual achievement. Against this the article emphasizes the importance of the state for social integration. On several levels it clamps the different inclusions: culturally polity and culture are fused and inclusions are based on certain cultural attributes and abilities; legally one has to pass over the threshold of citizenship to gain full access to all institutions; intermediary the political order set s an institutional frame for conflicts between interest groups; legitimator y the acceptance of a whole arrangement of differentiated orders is balance d by the legitimation of the political order; eventually the life-course is ordered by political regulations making possible biographical expectations and continuity.