Welche Rolle spielen Wohlfahrtsstaatlichkeit und Globalisierung für die Ausprägungen des Populismus?

Abstract

The article interprets the rise of populism as an expression of protest against globalization. Globalization is here conceived – with Dani Rodrik – as manifesting itself either in the cross-border movement of goods and capital or in the cross-border movement of persons (aka ‘migration’). If a globalization shock manifests itself in the former variant, populist protest tends to be articulated on the political left, if a globalization shock manifests itself in the latter variant, populist protest is to be found rather on the political right. Against the background of Europe’s two recent crises – the financial and then Euro-crisis 2010 followed by the refugee crisis 2015 – the article explains the striking north-south divide between right-wing and left-wing populism with the differing vulnerabilities of Europe’s northern and the southern political economies vis-à-vis these two different variants of globalization.