The Great Regression

Heinrich Geiselberger, Heinrich Geiselberger

• Publisher: Polity
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781509522392
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

We are living through a period of dramatic political change – Brexit, the election of Trump, the rise of extreme right movements in Europe and elsewhere, the resurgence of nationalism and xenophobia and a concerted assault on the liberal values and ideals associated with cosmopolitanism and globalization. Suddenly we find ourselves in a world that few would have imagined possible just a few years ago, a world that seems to many to be a move backwards. How can we make sense of these dramatic developments and how should we respond to them? Are we witnessing a worldwide rejection of liberal democracy and its replacement by some kind of populist authoritarianism?

This timely volume brings together some of the world's greatest minds to analyse and seek to understand the forces behind this 'great regression'. Writers from across disciplines and countries, including Paul Mason, Pankaj Mishra, Slavoj Zizek, Zygmunt Bauman, Arjun Appadurai, Wolfgang Streeck and Eva Illouz, grapple with our current predicament, framing it in a broader historical context, discussing possible future trajectories and considering ways that we might combat this reactionary turn.

The Great Regression is a key intervention that will be of great value to all those concerned about recent developments and wondering how best to respond to this unprecedented challenge to the very core of liberal democracy and internationalism across the world today.

For more information, see: www.thegreatregression.eu

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contributors
• Preface
• 1: Democracy fatigue
• 2: Symptoms in search of an object and a name
• 3: Progressive and regressive politics in late neoliberalism
• 4: Progressive neoliberalism versus reactionary populism: a Hobson's choice
• 5: From the paradox of liberation to the demise of liberal elites
• 6: Majoritarian futures
• 7: Europe as refuge
• 8: Overcoming the fear of freedom
• 9: Politics in the age of resentment: the dark legacy of the Enlightenment
• 10: The courage to be audacious
• 11: Decivilization: on regressive tendencies in Western societies
• 12: From global regression to post-capitalist counter-movements
• 13: The return of the repressed as the beginning of the end of neoliberal capitalism
• 14: Dear President Juncker
• 15: The populist temptation
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