Heinrich Geiselberger 
The Great Regression 

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 Content

List of Contributors

Preface

Heinrich Geiselberger

1. Democracy Fatigue

Arjun Appadurai

2. Symptoms in Search of an Object and a Name

Zygmunt Bauman

3. Progressive and Regressive Politics in Late Neoliberalism

Donatella della Porta

4. Progressive Neoliberalism versus Reactionary Populism: A Hobson?s Choice

Nancy Fraser

5. Populism or the Crisis of Liberal Elites: The Case of Israel

Eva Illouz

6. Majoritarian Futures

Ivan Krastev

7. Europe as refuge

Bruno Latour

8. Overcoming the Fear of Freedom

Paul Mason

9. Politics in the Age of Resentment. The Dark Legacy of the Enlightenment

Pankaj Mishra

10. The Courage to be Audacious

Robert Misik

11. Decivilisation. On regressive tendencies in Western democracies

Oliver Nachtwey

12. From Global Regression to Post-Capitalist Counter-Movements

Cesar Rendueles

13. The Return of the Repressed as the Beginning of the End of Neoliberal Capitalism

Wolfgang Streeck

14. Dear President Juncker

David Van Reybrouck

15. The Populist Temptation

Slavoj Zizek

About the author

Heinrich Geiselberger, born 1977 in Waiblingen, Germany, is an editor at the leading German publisher Suhrkamp Verlag.