Democratic institutions are currently facing a crisis of legitimacy, and the political system is also coming under pressure along with them. It is therefore high time to engage with the liberal thinker Ralf Dahrendorf, who was already describing the basic elements of this crisis as long ago as the 1980s. As a brilliant wanderer between different fields and disciplines, he not only commuted between the Anglo-Saxon and European worlds, but was also equally active as a journalist, academic and politician. Drawing on his countless writings, Thomas Hauser portrays in a lively and insightful way the basic aspects of this great intellectual=s thinking, which can still help us to grasp complex developments in today=s global world.