Critical Conversations: Wolfgang Streeck
In the second episode of Critical Conversations, we hear from Wolfgang Streeck, one of the world’s leading sociologists and political economists. He is renowned for his writing on capitalism, democracy, globalisation, and the changing nature of the modern state. Streeck examines the ways in which economic institutions shape political life, and how the tensions between capitalism and democratic government have intensified since the late twentieth century.
His work was quoted in The Meaning of Starmer’s Resignation, a recent edition of Independence Captured. This podcast is a companion to that piece.
Streeck is a Senior Research Associate and Emeritus Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. He is a Member of the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and an Honorary Member of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics.
Among his most influential books are:
Re-Forming Capitalism: Institutional Change in the German Political Economy
Taking Back Control? States and State Systems After Globalism
We discuss the following themes:
Are the contradictions between capitalism and democracy deepening?
Is representative democracy capable of disciplining capital, or has economic power become too detached from any semblance of democratic control?
What is the future of neoliberal globalisation in a multipolar world?
How is geopolitical competition reshaping national politics?
Established political parties continue to lose support: is this a symptom of democratic renewal or exhaustion?
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