ACHIM HURRELMANN is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. His research focuses on democracy and legitimacy in the European Union, multilevel governance, and European integration theory.   ZUZANA KRELL-LALUHOVÁ was a Research Associate at the TranState Research Centre, University of Bremen, Germany, and now works for the European Commission. In her academic research, she focuses on the legitimation of the nation state, with a special emphasis on the new EU member states. FRANK NULLMEIER is Professor of Political Science at the Centre for Social Policy Research, University of Bremen, Germany. His areas of research include social policy analysis in a sociology-of-knowledge perspective and the micro-analysis of decision-making processes. STEFFEN SCHNEIDER is a Research Associate at the TranState Research Centre, University of Bremen, Germany. His research focuses on the legitimacy of national and international political orders, on single-party dominance in Western democracies, and on labour market policy-making in advanced industrial economies. ACHIM WIESNER was a Research Associate at the Centre for Social Policy Research and currently holds an administrative position at the University of Bremen, Germany. His research interests are in the areas of political ethnography, post-secondary education policy and federalism.

• Introduction: A Legitimacy Crisis of the Democratic Nation State? The Communicative Dimension of Legitimacy: A Text Analytical Perspective How Stable is the Legitimacy of the Democratic Nation State? How Democratic is the Legitimacy of the Nation State? Re-legitimation Strategies: Countering Threats to the Legitimacy of Political Systems Conclusion: Broadening the Agenda of Legitimacy Research Methodological Appendix