Exploring the impact of globalization on state sovereignty, this book examines how states are adapting to maintain control in an interconnected world. It analyzes the evolving roles of national governments, the challenges posed by transnational forces, and the strategies employed by states to reclaim authority. Through various case studies, the text highlights the tension between global integration and local governance, offering insights into the future of state systems in a rapidly changing political landscape.
In the countries of the global north, workplace democracy may be thought of as a thing of the past. Today, working relations are regulated primarily by contract; workforces are increasingly fissured and fragmented. What are the consequences of this? How should we respond? Ruth Dukes and Wolfgang Streeck argue that the time is ripe to restate the principles of industrial democracy and citizenship for the post-industrial era. Considering developments within political economy, employment relations and labour law since the postwar decades, they trace the rise of globalization and the “dualisation” of labour markets - the emergence of a core and periphery of workers - and the progressive insulation of working relations from democratic governance. What these developments amount to, they argue, is an urgent need for political intervention to tame the new world of “gigging” and other forms of highly precarious work. This, according to the authors, will require far-reaching institution-building, designed to fill legal concepts such as “employment” with political substance. This eloquent call for a reimagining and renewal of the institutional and material conditions of freedom of association and the reinvention of industrial democracy will be crucial reading for anyone interested in work in the 21st century.
In der Hochphase des Neoliberalismus galt die Globalisierung als unvermeidlich und die umverteilende Demokratie als überholt. Wachsender Wohlstand für alle war das Versprechen, wachsende Unfähigkeit, die kapitalistische Ungleichheitsmaschine zu bändigen, ist das Ergebnis. Taumelnde Volksparteien, schrumpfende Gewerkschaften und grassierende Zweifel an der Leistungsfähigkeit demokratischer Institutionen sind die eine Folge dieser Entwicklung. Die andere sind Bewegungen wie die »Gelbwesten« sowie neue Parteien an den Rändern des politischen Spektrums. Längst hat in vielen Ländern ein Tauziehen um die politische Ordnung begonnen, das die Gesellschaften zu zerreißen droht.Angesichts dieser Situation, deren Ursachen im Zuge der Corona-Pandemie noch schärfer hervortreten, ist die Zeit reif für eine grundlegende Entscheidung, sagt Wolfgang Streeck in seinem fulminanten neuen Buch. Soll es mit dem Umbau des Staatensystems weitergehen wie gehabt, das heißt in Richtung einer noch stärkeren überstaatlichen Zentralisierung? Oder wäre der Weg in eine moderne, auf friedliche Kooperation ausgerichtete »Kleinstaaterei« die bessere Lösung? Mit dem Ziel einer Neubegründung demokratischer Politik vor Augen fällt sein Votum eindeutig aus: für den zweiten Weg, auch und gerade in Europa.
An anthology of long-read book reviews by one of the European left’s foremost political economists From the acclaimed author of How Will Capitalism End? comes an omnibus of long-form critical essays engaging with leading economists and thinkers. Critical Encounters draws on Wolfgang Streeck’s inimitable writing for the London Review of Books and New Left Review, among other publications. It opens with treatments of two contrasting historical eras—factory capitalism and financialization—and three of the world’s major economies: the United States, France and Germany. A middle section surveys the hollowing out of Western democracies and reviews Yanis Varoufakis’s “strange but indispensable” memoir of the eurozone crisis. Delving into the world of ideas, Streeck discusses the work of Quinn Slobodian, Mark Blyth, Jürgen Habermas and Perry Anderson. Finally, he zooms out to compare his home discipline of sociology to natural history, giving a remarkable and non-deterministic reading of Charles Darwin. In the preface, Streeck reflects on the art (or craft) of book reviewing and the continuing merits of the book form. Critical Encounters also includes a series of “Letters from Europe,” penned as the coronavirus descended upon the Continent.
