Gemeinschaften ohne Grenzen?

The legal contents of citizenship are undergoing significant changes which might in turn have a disintegrative effect on society and reduce the potential of the law to legitimize power. This is the claim of the book. It is presented in three steps. The first one deals with the concepts of (multilevel) citizenship, (political) community, and integration, thus synthesizing the social theory background of the study. The second part is a legal analysis of the rights and duties which are associated with citizenship on the national and other political levels. It detects a tendency towards »de-concentration«: National citizenship previously contained most of these rights and duties, but is gradually losing its contents. At the same time, there is no »re-concentration« of these contents in the membership status of any other political community. The final part of the book illustrates how this development might lead to a disintegration of society and a delegitimization of (public) power.