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You have had a strong influence on the German Chancellor with your work on the topic of justice. He was inspired by this for his election campaign with the motto “Respect”. There is currently a very aggressive, angry mood against Olaf Scholz in Germany, the AfD has good poll numbers. What went wrong?Michael Sandel: Olaf Scholz spoke very convincingly about respect during the election campaign. Reconnecting social democratic parties with the working class is an important project. But it may take longer than we originally thought. Of course, it is difficult to focus on this topic at a time when the Ukraine war is completely changing the political and economic landscape in Germany and the entire world. The focus has understandably shifted towards the security and energy crisis.
Joe Biden has tried something similar in the USA, but so far he doesn’t seem to be succeeding. Yes, he also talked about the dignity of work in his campaign. He promised to support unions more than any president before him. He distanced himself from the finance-driven globalization that has led to the outsourcing of jobs to low-wage countries, destroyed industrial regions and led to working-class anger against Democrats. Because most Democrats have supported this type of globalization since the 1980s. And in office he really tried to show an alternative. The economic situation in the USA improved under him. He and his experts wonder why this doesn’t get through to people.
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