CAPITALISM WITHOUT DEMOCRACY

Robert Misik in conversation with Quinn Slobodian

CAPITALISM WITHOUT DEMOCRACY

According to investor Peter Thiel in 2009, freedom and democracy are no longer compatible. Those who love freedom must therefore try to escape politics in all its forms. Libertarians could seek refuge in cyberspace, outer space and the open sea. This may sound blown away, but it is part of a decades-old tradition of radical market ideas: Thinkers such as Milton Friedman enthused about Hong Kong, which was still under British suzerainty; Margaret Thatcher dreamed of a Singapore on the Thames.
In Globalists, Quinn Slobodian dealt with attempts to remove economic issues from democratic decision-making, for example by transferring them to international organisations. Capitalism without Democracy is now about a different solution to the problem that Thiel deplores: breaking up the world into tax havens, private cities or micro-nations. Slobodian takes us on a fascinating journey through the world of neoliberal utopias. It takes us to Dubai and Liechtenstein, to civil war-torn Somalia and to Elon Musk's Texan spaceport. And it broadens our view of a possible future that should worry us.
The interview will be held in English.

Quinn Slobodian, born in 1978 in Edmonton, Canada, is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Wellesley College. He specialises in German history, social movements and the relationship between industrialised countries and the global South.

Moderation Robert Misik, Author and journalist

Quinn Slobodian:
Capitalism without democracy. How market radicals want to carve up the world into micronations, private cities and tax havens; Translated by Stephan Gebauer
Suhrkamp, November 2023, ISBN 978-3-518-43146-7, 32,- €