Thinking about the role of the state during the corona pandemic may seem like “carrying coals to Newcastle” . After all, times of crisis are considered to be times of the executive . What is needed more than ever, therefore, seems to be a strong state capable of acting . However, the architecture of statehood has already changed and political and social science research had begun addressing this long before the current crisis . In particular, it is digitization that drives international networking . This raises questions of the conditions of its legitimation because rule is increasingly associated with multilevel governance and a diffusion of political responsibility . Here, however, it is argued that even in the much-invoked “post-national constellation” the state remains an authority of legitimation, if not the decisive one . In order to maintain and further develop liberal democracy, a new regulatory policy for the digital communication society is required, in which the state is not less important than an active civil society . (Quelle: abstract)