Wolfgang Streeck's critical analysis of the issues at hand

Wolfgang Streeck, a renowned German sociologist, has sparked controversy with his recent political views. Once a critic of neoliberalism and globalization, Streeck has shifted towards a more right-leaning position, drawing criticism from various quarters.

In a 2024 BSW praise in "Freitag", Streeck ignored the first asylum law tightening in Germany in the fall of 2015 and subsequent tightening, as well as European migration policies that eventually led to the common European asylum system of Dublin III. This move raised eyebrows, as it seemed to contrast with his earlier stance on immigration and refugee issues.

Streeck's analysis of the late 20th-century capitalist developments has led him to a perspective that grapples with tensions between global and local, vertical and horizontal social forces. He views the working class as a nationally organized entity, ignoring real transnationalization processes of the working class. This situates Streeck in a political context that links him with political currents concerned with populism, nationalism, and critiques of neoliberalism and globalization frameworks.

In his maverick thinking, Streeck reduces the climate crisis to a mere moral question, dismissing climate protection as a "religion". He also mocks necessary city adaptations to changed climatic conditions as a matter of "virtuous cities". These views have been met with criticism, as they downplay the urgency and importance of addressing climate change.

Streeck's texts also legitimize cross-front activities, aligning with the New Right's conceptual confusion, and establishing a new main contradiction, asserting that the latest modernity is opposed to a lost state, to which one must return via a return to the national.

In a 2023 lecture at the Library of Conservatism, a central think tank of the New Right in Germany, Streeck called for a "conservative revolution" and suggested taking the social state of the 1970s as a conservative model. This move has been interpreted as a call for a return to a more protectionist and nationalist economic policy.

Streeck's shift towards the right has not gone unnoticed by right-wing cultural fighters, who appreciate his perspective, viewing him as unyielding and rebellious. However, his indifference about whether his critical examination of contemporary issues is associated with the "right" or the "left" has raised questions about his motivations.

In an article about the Ukraine war, Streeck nails down the cosmopolitanism he rejects in the formula "Americanism as universalism" in an anti-liberal tradition. In a 2024 lecture at a conference of the conspiratorial party Die Basis, Streeck assumed that the nation-state and sovereignty are a "weapon of the weak against the strong" and are therefore denied or restricted by the "empire", the USA.

Streeck's views have been met with criticism for ignoring any personal situatedness and showing ignorance of the needs of those oppressed by the capitalist mode of production. Instead, he lusts after a national pseudo-rebellion and the political forces of fascism.

In the "New Left Review", Streeck lamented the election result of the BSW and did not consider workers who were not allowed to vote or did not vote for the AfD, thereby reinforcing the right-wing narrative of the AfD as a social party. Streeck also joined in the left-wing "praise of the nation", with which Michael Bröning defended the nation-state, which supposedly had to be set against an allegedly anti-national mainstream.

Streeck confuses nation with liberation and transitions from anti-capitalism to anti-liberalism. He calls for a "multipolar world order" with a non-aligned Europe, a stance that likely pleases the Europe strategists of the New Right.

Recent successes of the AfD and the BSW, as celebrated by Constantin von Hoffmeister, an actor of the New Right, signal a revival of a strong national-bolshevik current. As Streeck continues to speak out on political issues, his impact on the political landscape remains to be seen.

Wolfgang Streeck's critical analysis of the issues at hand