The article is devoted to the problem of the crisis of the state power legitimization in advanced capitalist society studied in the critical social theory of J. Habermas. Today, against the background of ongoing tectonic shifts in the world order, the Western states of advanced capitalism are facing the problems that are becoming increasingly diffi cult for the ruling elites to solve. The categories such as the state and democracy are under the threat of loss of legitimacy. The crisis of legitimacy of the late capitalist social order is by no means a new phenomenon for social science. J. Habermas's refl ections are based on concepts and principles developed by him within the framework of critical social theory. He argues that the main contradiction of the capitalist order remains the private appropriation of state wealth; in terms of the discursive model of practical rationality: the suppression of generalized interests through treating them as private. As a result, political decisions do not recognize a rational consensus. The stability of the capitalist social formation depends on the continued eff ectiveness of legitimation, which does not stand up to discursive scrutiny. The central problem is the lack of a regulatory framework for public consent. J. Habermas is convinced that it is possible to ensure normative agreement on the intersubjective basis by referring to the concept of undistorted communication. It is possible to establish some kind of regulatory agreement, from the point of view of which the activities of the state can be given legitimacy. Not that this is likely to ensure the legitimacy of a liberal capitalist state; rather, the needs and interests that would be the basis of a normative agreement and that could be established in a situation of undistorted communication would point the way to the transformation of a capitalist society, which models of domination cause people to systematically err about their motives and interests.