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donate Summary for Blätter 5/2009
Harold Meyerson
The end of the Reagan era
The first 100 days of Barack Obama
Right at the beginning of his term, the new U.S. President renounced the politics of George W. Bush – and started a departure both in domestic and in foreign policy. Harold Meyerson, Op-ed-contributor for the "Washington Post" and senior editor of "American Prospect", scrutinizes Obama's start. His thesis: Whilst the domestic reforms represent the beginning of a new "progressive era" in U.S. politics, the failed bank policy of Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner marks the Achilles heel of the new administration.
Friedhelm Hengsbach
After the crisis is before the crisis
For an economic restart without financial capitalism
At the G20 summit in London, the heads of government declared to have solved the financial and economic crisis. But in reality, the required political turnaround does not take place, as Friedhelm Hengsbach, Professor em. for Christian Social Sciences at the University Sankt Georgen, demonstrates. The German government, too, continues its denial of the fact that the present financial crisis and social crisis are only two sides of the same coin: i.e., of fundamentally mistaken economic, financial and social policies.
Thilo Bode and Katja Pink
Capitalism without liability
Who is accountable for the losses caused by the financial crisis? Can bankers and managers be held responsible for their decisions? Thilo Bode, executive director of German NGO "foodwatch", and lawyer Katja Pink discuss the difficult issue of legal liability. They criticize a "capitalism without liability" and demand new rules for financial markets and managers.
Hans-Jürgen Urban
The mosaic left
From the departure of the unions to the revival of the movement
Neoliberalism is faltering, but it is not conquered yet. Hans-Jürgen Urban, executive director of the German metal union IG Metall, outlines the union's response to the crisis as oscillating between structural conservatism and strategic innovation. Urban pleads for an ecologically and socially enlightened "economic democracy". In this process, a pluralistically organised "mosaic left" will regain importance.
60 Years "Grundgesetz": the Unredeemed Promise
This month, the Federal Republic of Germany celebrates the 60th anniversary of its foundation. "Blätter" analyses the context and intentions of the German constitution and especially of its unredeemed promises.
Hans-Karl Rupp, Professor em. for Political Science at the University of Marburg, shows how the the democrats' far-reaching consensus of the postwar period (anti-fascism, anti-militarism and anti-monopolism) gradually began to dissolve under the impression of the beginning cold war – and how anti-communism eventually replaced anti-fascism as the leading ideology of the young republic.
Lawyer Ines Reich-Hilweg documents how the principle of gender equality was written in the constitution – and how it was softened later, in particular with respect to the economic sphere ("equal pay for equal work").
Otmar Jung, Lecturer for Political Science and Contemporary History at Free University Berlin, unmasks a central "founding myth": namely that the "Grundgesetz" does not contain plebiscitary elements because of the "Weimar experience". According to Jung, not "Weimar", but the anti-plebiscitary attitude of the political elite was responsible for repelling direct democracy.
Albert Sterr
Drug War in Latin America
In Latin America, the drug war is rampant – in Mexico alone, more than 6000 people were killed last year. Political scientist Albert Sterr shows how coca cultivation and drug trafficking, but also state policies, generated a panopticon of violence. His survey of the most important countries of the drug trafficking route – Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia – illustrates the failure of the "war against drugs". Sterr also discusses alternative regional approaches for dealing with coca production.
Published 2009-05-05
Original in German
Contributed by Blätter
© Blätter
© Eurozine
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