Die funktionale Transformation moderner Staatlichkeit

This article examines whether the recent resurgence of strategic state intervention represents a return of the interventionist state or a functional transformation of modern statehood. Drawing on a comparative analysis of China, the United States, and Europe, and integrating insights from the literatures on governance, the developmental state, industrial policy, State Capacity, and institutional change, it argues that emerging societal coordination requirements generate new state functions and new institutional mechanisms of coordination. These developments transform the scope of state intervention and the institutional logic of state action. The article develops a functional explanation of this transformation. It distinguishes analytically between the strategic intervention state as an empirical diagnosis of contemporary developments and the strategic-coordinative state as a normative ideal type. The latter provides a conceptual framework for understanding how strategic State Capacity can be reconciled with competitive markets, the rule of law, and democratic accountability under conditions of profound structural transformation.