Jürgen Habermas, world-renowned as a social theorist, philosopher, and leading European public intellectual for more than five decades, is also one of the public figures most responsible for the liberalization of German political culture after World War II. This book departs from most studies of Habermas by focusing on his political and legal thought. While communication and the public sphere surely are leading leitmotifs of his life’s work, they are not the concepts that best illuminate Habermas’s historical significance.