Totalitarismus und Demokratie (Apr 2020)
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.