The book deals with problems of government in stressed societies. On the one hand, it deals with the phenomenon of crisis, which has so far been treated primarily from the perspective of effective crisis management, whereas what is needed - as called for here - is the development of a comprehensive, holistic perspective that understands crises as simultaneously cognitive, communicative and socio-psychological challenges. The concept of crisis does not do justice to the current discourse on democracy. Rather, it is about the threat to the democratic order, around the preservation of which the current communication of threat revolves. After taking a look at the overused concept of the turn of an era and the question of whose resilience is actually at stake, the need to conceive now how things should continue is emphasised, without being reassured by the formula of the ‘new normality’.
