Why did Germany become one of the world’s most important export economies, after it started as an import surplus country in the 19th century? How did this transformation change the institutional structure of the political system to an extent that alternative policies are difficult to implement? Based on careful archival research, Jan-Otmar Hesse (Bayreuth University) will give an overview of Germany’s transformation to a “world export champion” (Exportweltmeister).

In his new book Taking Back Control?, Wolfgang Streeck analyses the ongoing tug-of-war between the forces of globalism and democracy. Exploring the possibility for states and the societies they govern to take back control over their collective fate, the book is an attempt at a renewed theory of the state in political economy. Inspired by the work of Karl Polanyi and John Maynard Keynes, it discusses the potential outlines of a state system allowing for democratic governance within and peaceful cooperation between sovereign nation-states.

Despite very different labor markets and political institutions in the US and Germany, firm size appears to impact workers’ job outcomes in a remarkably similar way. In their paper “Firm Size and Society: The Link Between Firm Size, Job Outcomes, and Political Attitudes,” Sinisa Hadziabdic and Sebastian Kohl examine the impact of working in firms of different sizes on occupational and political outcomes, using micro-level data for the two countries.