Book Discussion on Der erschöpfte Staat: Eine andere Geschichte des Neoliberalismus

The MPIfG and the publisher Hamburger Edition hosted a public book discussion at the Institute in February exploring statehood and the relationship between neoliberal theory and political practice. The book at the center of the discussion was Ariane Leendertz’s recently published Der erschöpfte Staat: Eine andere Geschichte des Neoliberalismus, in which the former MPIfG research group leader focuses on the USA since the 1970s to trace the rise of neoliberalism and uses the image of the “exhausted state” to symbolize the erosion of belief in the state’s ability to solve social problems. Why did that belief become eroded? In what sense was the state “exhausted”? And what lessons for the present can be learned from the developments of the past? The political scientist Thomas Biebricher, European historian Bernd Rieger, and sociologists Uwe Schimank and Wolfgang Streeck joined the author to speak at the event and share their particular disciplinary insights. The talks were followed by a discussion with the fifty or so guests who attended the event.