Das Jahrhundert der Politik

No other century was so intensively shaped by politics than the 20th century. From the politics of killing in totalitarian regimes to social politics in the age of modern welfare democracies, all this underlines the development of a specific type of society—the so-called ‘political society’. However, in the course of the century, the character of modern politics and policies changed fundamentally. It altered from the goal-oriented and future-oriented control and steering of modern societies to time-oriented reactivity in the present. Today, the politics of confidence has been reshaped by a politics of scepticism. If modern politics reduces itself to the situational management of the unexpected, it will no longer be able to exercise power over social circumstances but only power within them. This book confronts these questions and analyses these dynamics in the most important policy areas in modern democratic societies.