Wolfgang Streeck

political expectation democratic state austerity populist riots

"The political expectations that democratic states are now facing from their new principles may be impossible to meet. International markets and institutions require that not just governments but also citizens credibly commit themselves to fiscal consolidation (austerity).

Political parties that oppose this must be resoundingly defeated in national elections, and both government and opposition must be publicly pledged to ‘sound finance’, or else the cost of debt service will rise.

Elections in which voters have no effective choice, however, may be perceived by them as inauthentic, which may cause all sorts of political disorder, from declining turnout to a rise of populist parties to riots in the streets.”

― Wolfgang Streeck

digital electronicization middle class mechanization worker

“Electronicization will do to the middle class what mechanization has done to the working class, and it will do it much faster”

― Wolfgang Streeck

capitalism hell limbo overdose decay body

“Before capitalism will go to hell, then, it will for the foreseeable future hang in limbo, dead or about to die from an overdose of itself but still very much around, as nobody will have the power to move its decaying body out of the way.”

― Wolfgang Streeck