The demand for the return of politics and good governance, which is formulated as a counterbalance to the economization of public goods, is due to the fact that the dynamics of economic globalization are already beginning to exhaust. The state that "had" to give way to market forces in order to modernize ultimately retreated, leading to unprecedented corruption that threatens the foundations of democratically legitimate politics and state power. The current demand for the return of politics also includes the demand for the return of the state, but which state exactly? In this central question, the answer of the study deviates from the traditional autocratic and ineffective state. The modern state is a modernized state. And in its modernization, nothing has contributed more than the New Public Management. [...] Based on a resilient civil society, it does not dictate to society, but by obeying the same principles of governance as the other social subsystems, it contributes to prosperity and social cohesion.