PROKLA - Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialwissenschaft
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Warum so staatstragend? Die Krisen der repräsentativen Demokratie in der Euro-Krise als Chance für radikalen Reformismus und gesellschaftliche Emanzipation
Get PDFIn the Euro crisis, there is a significant shift in state-society relations and representative democracy: The European ensemble of state apparatuses ‘hardens’ due to authoritarian austerity measures and becomes less responsive to interests and conflicts within society. At the same time, social conflicts intensify especially in the European periphery as the precariousness of everyday life increases (e.g. evictions, unemployment, and poverty). The article argues that critical European integration research has been unable to develop strategic responses to this situation, because it neglects resistance as well as strategic and structural selectivities of state apparatuses. It in consequence develops a conservative stance: to defend ‘really existing’ democracy. Taking the Spanish protests against austerity and everyday crises (e.g. 15-M) as a case study the article shows that a more progressive answer to the current crisis is possible and necessary: a radical reformism that aims beyond state, capitalism and representative democracy
Genealogisch-poststrukturalistische Ökonomiekritik und Kritik der politischen Ökonomie: Eine Aufforderung zum Tanz
Get PDFThis article discusses pragmatic and productive encounters of post-structuralist and Marxian critiques of the economy. It is shown that to contribute to the goal of a sufficient analysis of contemporary capitalistic societies, no full conceptual integration of both bodies of theory is needed. The initial focus addresses the core-concepts of discourse and economic categories, arguing that the perspectives do not contradict each other, but point to quite similar assumptions, only at different levels of abstraction. The next section outlines two more concrete post-structuralist variants of critique, balancing them with regard to the works of Marx. The following section discusses material analyses, ending with a proposal on how to use insights and concepts of both perspectives to fine-tune our historicallyspecific understanding of capitalism
“Lo llaman democracia y no lo es”: Eine demokratietheoretische Annäherung an die Bewegung des 15. Mai
Get PDFSince May 15th,2011, major transformations have been taking place in the Spanish public sphere, especiallybecause of the celebration of political debate with major affluence on public squares. TheSpanish ‘15-M movement’ presents three key characteristics: First, it demands a renovation ofmodern democracy; second, it opposes to the implemented programmes of structural adjustment,public budget consolidation and, in broader terms, neoliberal policy application andthird, it develops formerly unknown or only among left-wing activists known forms of collectivedecision making and re-appropriation of public space. The following article will discussthe first two aspects. After a chronologic description of collective action applied by the 15-Mmovement, the text will develop analytical insights into questions regarding concepts such asdemocracy, citizenship and political identities.Since May 15th,2011, major transformations have been taking place in the Spanish public sphere, especiallybecause of the celebration of political debate with major affluence on public squares. TheSpanish ‘15-M movement’ presents three key characteristics: First, it demands a renovation ofmodern democracy; second, it opposes to the implemented programmes of structural adjustment,public budget consolidation and, in broader terms, neoliberal policy application andthird, it develops formerly unknown or only among left-wing activists known forms of collectivedecision making and re-appropriation of public space. The following article will discussthe first two aspects. After a chronologic description of collective action applied by the 15-Mmovement, the text will develop analytical insights into questions regarding concepts such asdemocracy, citizenship and political identities
Zwischen Bankenrettungen und autoritärem Wettbewerbsregime: Zur Dynamik des europäischen Krisenmanagements
Get PDFThe global financial crisis did not only plunge the European Union into a deep recession, but also released remarkable contradictions within the organisation and regulation of the European economy. As complex as the structural causes of the crisis are, the diverse and disputed are the political struggles and policy reactions to it. In particular, the different spheres of activity in European crisis management are characterised by variegated compromises, however no progressive change in European modes of regulation and underlying transnational social and political power networks seems to take place. Rather, alternative approaches are getting constantly disarticulated by discursive and organisational means, while authoritarian European policy reactions do not only deepen the crisis dynamics in Europe, but also more and more point towards a major crisis of democracy
Die Renaissance des autoritären Liberalismus? Carl Schmitt und der deutsche Neoliberalismus vor dem Hintergrund des Eintritts der „Massen“ in die europäische Politik
Get PDFThe unfolding crisis of capitalism – the most severe since the 1930s – is taking the shine off those neoliberal projects that were implemented in the context of the European Union. As a result, the present, competition-state mode of integration, which is based on consensus, is sliding into an ever deeper crisis of hegemony. To maintain the status quo, coercion is, if necessary, substituted for the disappearing consensus. That the central EU crisis initiatives (Economic Governance and the Fiscal Compact) are eroding formal democracy and the rule of law in particular heralds the beginning of an authoritarian turn in Europe. Drawing on the theory of Nicos Poulantzas this turn can be described as authoritarian competitive statism. In a – to a certain extent – comparable crisis of hegemony in the 1930s Carl Schmitt and German neoliberal intellectuals developed a strategy of dominance which can be described as authoritarian liberalism. In comparing this discourse with the present crisis mode of the European Union I try to sensitize the analytical framework for a counter-hegemonic strategy
Jenseits von Vereinnahmung und eindimensionalem Feminismus: Perspektiven feministischer Gesellschaftskritik heute
Get PDFThe first part of the paper ”From a ‘Resignification’ of Feminist Critique and a ‘One-Dimensional’ Feminism to Perspectives of Feminist Critique Today“ discusses Nancy Fraser’s essay ‘Feminism, Capitalism and the Cunning of History’ and her latest attempts to refer to Polanyian concepts for a feminist, potentially post-neoliberal Zeitdiagnose (diagnosis of our times). The second part describes alternative readings of the women’s movement that appropriate insights developed by the early Frankfurt School for feminist purposes (Andrea Maihofer, Andrea Trumann, Nina Power). In the final section, it is discussed how these different approaches can contribute to clarifying the challenges, obstacles and perspectives of feminism in light of the present crisis
Oligopolistische Rivalität im Pharma-Biotech-Komplex Konzentration des Kapitals und die Suche nach Rentenerträgen
Get PDFConcentration and centralization of capital are also expressed in the transfer and appropriation by companies of values that were created in other organizations and social contexts. This reflects the rising power of finance capital and the imposition of a global rent regime. The paper presents the dynamics of the concentration and centralization of capital in the combined pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Oligopolistic rivalry is a key process. Despite of processes of vertical and horizontal disintegration the large oligopolistic rivals maintain or even extend their power. They are able to enforce different forms of rent income. However, the large pharmaceutical companies face some fundamental challenges. Further acquisitions are likely to happen in near future
Man spricht deutsch: Eine trügerische Erfolgsgeschichte
Get PDFThe European crisis is giving rise to highly controversial statements on the role of Germany. The paperhighlights Germany’s role as the single most important problem maker, rather than problemtaker, in the course of the current revival of neoliberal economic policy reforms in Europe.Major roots of the deepening imbalances in the Eurozone are ascribed to a reshaped Germanmodel of capitalism which is analysed as a hybrid of surviving powerful features of ‘Rhenish’capitalism and neoliberal upheavals in the labour market. As a consequence, the austerity regimeimposed on other countries by the German government may be economically beneficialfor Germany in the short run but will most presumably prove to be a disaster in the longer runboth for individual countries and for Europe as a whole.The European crisis is giving rise to highly controversial statements on the role of Germany. The paperhighlights Germany’s role as the single most important problem maker, rather than problemtaker, in the course of the current revival of neoliberal economic policy reforms in Europe.Major roots of the deepening imbalances in the Eurozone are ascribed to a reshaped Germanmodel of capitalism which is analysed as a hybrid of surviving powerful features of ‘Rhenish’capitalism and neoliberal upheavals in the labour market. As a consequence, the austerity regimeimposed on other countries by the German government may be economically beneficialfor Germany in the short run but will most presumably prove to be a disaster in the longer runboth for individual countries and for Europe as a whole
Finanzdominierte Akkumulation und die Krise in Europa
Get PDFThe present crisis in Europe is just one form of a multiple crisis of the social formationdominated by the capitalist mode of production. More specifically it is a crisis of the financedominatedregime of accumulation which developed as a response to the crisis of Fordismsince the 1980s. In this article, first we analyze the contradictions of the finance-dominatedregime of accumulation and the contradictions of the crisis management of the ruling classes.The present crisis in Europe is just one form of a multiple crisis of the social formationdominated by the capitalist mode of production. More specifically it is a crisis of the financedominatedregime of accumulation which developed as a response to the crisis of Fordismsince the 1980s. In this article, first we analyze the contradictions of the finance-dominatedregime of accumulation and the contradictions of the crisis management of the ruling classes
Der neoliberale Leviathan: Eine historische Anthropologie des gegenwärtigen Gesellschaftsregimes
Get PDFThe anthropology of neoliberalism has become polarised between a hegemonic economic model anchored by variants of market rule and an insurgent approach fuelled by derivations of the Foucaultian notion of governmentality. Both conceptions obscure what is ‘neo’ about neoliberalism: the reengineering and redeployment of the state as the core agency that sets the rules and fabricates the subjectivities, social relations and collective representations suited to realising markets. I propose a via media between these two approaches that construes neoliberalism as an articulation of state, market and citizenship that harnesses the first to impose the stamp of the second onto the third