What is the purpose of the nation state in a functionally differentiated society in which systems as the economy and science etc. have their own criteria of success? Ole Thyssen explains, how the purpose of the nation state is to balance and tame exactly these self upholding and spreading rationalities of success. This role is non the less challenged by the territorial limits of the nation state versus the systems transnational functionality which constitutes a ‘world society’. Interestingly, as Ole Thyssen points out, the nation state is intimately related to the systems, as it seems that they demand and need the nation state to support their functioning.