2015 | Wolfgang Streeck
Markets and Democracy
The second Lucerne Master Class took place from 28 September to 2 October 2015 with the former director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Wolfang Streeck. The week-long event was the first of five master classes running annually from 2015-2019 under the general topic ‘The Culture of Markets’,
Book of Participants and Projects
What participants said:
“The Master Class was a one-time opportunity to discuss the work of an outstanding scholar and to get to know other PhD students working on related issues.” Sebastian Möller, University of Bremen
“I believe that spending this week with the Master will have an impact on the rest of my academic career.” Sandra Engelbrecht, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin
“[…] an extraordinary and unforgettable experience.” Maryna Onishchenko, Copenhagen University
Markets and Democracy
Markets and democracy function differently: one dollar, one vote the former, one man/woman, one vote the latter. Democratic politics with its egalitarian bent adjusts market outcomes to collective ideas of social justice; whereas markets reward winners and punish losers.
Historically capitalists favored markets, and workers suspected them of plotting to abolish democracy. Conversely, workers often opposed the market economy, and capitalists were afraid of electoral majorities replacing it, and private property rights as well, with state planning. It was only in the «mixed economy» of the two or three decades after the Second World War that markets and democracy seemed to be birds of a feather.
Since the 1970s, however, their relationship has again become unsettled as the neoliberal revolution has begun to set markets free from democratic-redistributive intervention. Deregulation, privatization, globalization are the key words now, announcing the construction of a new economic order free from democratic politics and governed by non-political «expert» institutions like independent central banks and international organizations – a development that was accompanied by a long-term «post-democratic» decline in political participation and a parallel increase in economic inequality.
The Master Class is open to discussing these and other aspects of the relationship between markets and democracy, in the past as well as at present.
Wolfgang Streeck | Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne
Wolfgang Streeck is Director emeritus and Professor at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany. From 1988 to 1995 he was Professor of Sociology and Industrial Relations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
His latest publications include: Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, London and New York: Verso Books, 2014; Politics in the Age of Austerity (ed., with Armin Schäfer), Cambridge: Polity Press 2013; Re-Forming Capitalism: Institutional Change in the German Political Economy, Oxford University Press, 2009; and Beyond Continuity: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies (ed., with Kathleen Thelen), Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
His current research interests are crises and institutional change in the political economy of contemporary capitalism.
The second Lucerne Master Class took place from 28 September to 2 October 2015 in a panorama meeting room at Hotel Seeburg in Lucerne.
14 researchers participated in the 2nd Lucerne Master Class
- Martin Aidnik, University of Tallin
- Ulrike Ehgartner, University of Manchester
- Frederik Beck, Berlin Social Science Center (WZB)
- Björn Bremer, European University Institute, Florence
- Julia Drubel, Universität Gießen
- Tim Holst Celik, Copenhagen Business School
- Sandra Engelbrecht, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin
- Martin Mendelski, Trier University
- Sebstian Möller, University of Bremen
- Arpita Mukherjee, University of Alberta, CA
- Maryna Onishchenko, Copenhagen University
- Lukas Peter, University of Zurich
- Nils Redeker, University of Zurich
- Lukas Tobler, University of Lucerne
Capitalism and Democracy Today
The public lecture took place on 29 September 2015.
In his public lecture, "Capitalism and Democracy Today", Wolfgang Streeck explored, amongst other things, the specific manifestation of the renewed tensions between democracy and capitalism in the European Union.
Flyer_Capitalism and Democracy today
