/160/ Enemies of the People (Large & Very Small) ft. Wolfgang Streeck
Added 2020-11-10 12:24:39 +0000 UTCOn Germany, the hegemon of Europe.
We are joined by leading German public intellectual Wolfgang Streeck to discuss the role of Germany at the end of the End of History. How is it and the EU faring under the assault of Covid-19? We cover Germanyβs economic miracles - postwar and post-2008 -, Merkelβs tactical brilliance and strategic ignorance, and how France retains more of a sense of history.
Also: why democracy sometimes needs an AK47.
Readings:
- Critical Encounters, Wolfgang Streeck, Verso (2020)
- Letters from Europe, Wolfgang Streeck (in EN & ES)
Comments
Interesting episode, thank you. I was however wondering why not one single comment was given on the most auspicious labour reforms since 1945 - the Hartz 4 labour reforms of 2002. Especially in reference to Alexβs question to Streeck about the myth of the βwell-to-doβ German working class. Conveniently introduced to parliament and discussed publicly during the NATO attacks on Serbia, the Hartz 4-reforms provided the main ground for Germanyβs neoliberal restructuring and the precarisation of the working class - the welding of social security and unemployment security into one system, the non-inflation adjusted blanket allowance, along with the humiliating practice of mandatory βone Euro-Jobsβ. These Hartz 4 reforms in fact *financed* Germanyβs economic export leadership, military leadership, and probably also ideological leadership in the EU, at the expense of an extreme pauperisation (especially of children and single parents). And of course they have been put forward by the social democratic and Green government and effectively abolished the welfare state. In other words, it was monumental and would have deserved a place in this episode with regard to Germanyβs dominance in the EU.
Sensible Captain
2020-11-11 15:24:44 +0000 UTCMore like: Pay-your-nazi-debt-many
Marc Walles
2020-11-10 15:59:04 +0000 UTC
