In the heyday of neoliberalism globalisation was considered inevitable and redistributive democracy obsolete. The promise was prosperity for all, the result was growing inequality. Economic stagnation coincided with a worldwide crisis of confidence in democratic institutions, including established political parties and trade unions. New movements like the »yellow vests« and newly formed parties at the margins of the political spectrum emerged in protest of declining political protection...
In the heyday of neoliberalism globalisation was considered inevitable and redistributive democracy obsolete. The promise was prosperity for all, the result was growing inequality. Economic stagnation coincided with a worldwide crisis of confidence in democratic institutions, including established political parties and trade unions. New movements like the »yellow vests« and newly formed parties at the margins of the political spectrum emerged in protest of declining political protection against rapidly rising economic and social uncertainty.
In his brilliant new book, Wolfgang Streeck argues that in light of this situation, whose causes appear all the more pronounced due to the Corona pandemic, it is time to make a fundamental decision. Should the reorganisation of the state system continue as before, i.e. towards ever greater supranational centralisation? Or would a rebuilding of decentralized autonomy and sovereignty – a return to more democratic self-government on the ground – be a better answer? In the book Streeck explores the limits of technocratic or free-market centralization within and between states and the possibilities of democratic decentralization as a response to the crises of our time, especially in Europe.
Wolfgang Streeck, born in 1946, was the director of the Max Planck Institute for Social Research in Cologne until 2014. He is a member of the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and the Academia Europaea, Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and Honorary Fellow of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics. His book Gekaufte Zeit. Die vertagte Krise des demokratischen Kapitalismus was nominated for the Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2013 (non-fiction category) and has been translated into 17 languages to date.
Wolfgang Streeck, born in 1946, was the director of the Max Planck Institute for Social Research in Cologne until 2014. He is a member of the...
English world rights (Verso), Spanish world rights (Katz), Chinese simplex rights (Social Sciences Academic Press), Russia (Higher School of Economics), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Boitempo), Portugal (Actual), Arabic world rights (Sefsafa), France (Gallimard), Italy (Feltrinelli), Netherlands (Leesmagazijn), Sweden (Daidalos), Finland (Vastapaino), Korea (Dolbegae), Japan (Misuzu Shobo), Poland (Natolin European Center), Bulgaria (K&X Critique & Humanism), Turkey (Koc UP)