The Erosion of Citizenship and the Rise of Right-Wing Populism in Germany

How and why could Western liberal democratic societies in the second decade of the 21^st century slide into a situation in that right-wing populism has not only become an important political force but in fact threatens democratic political culture? The paper argues that the main causes for this severe challenge to long-established procedures of democratic opinion formation and decision-making have been promoted by neo-liberalism’s long-term transformations of liberal democracy’s underlying economic, political, and social structure. Since the 1970s these processes have triggered effects that have undermined liberal democracies by dissolving both established social relations and citizenship contracts and eroded citizenship – the institution that established, enforced and secured citizens’ civil, political, social and cultural rights and obligations. Consequentially, citizenship has fundamentally been shifted towards its exclusionary pole. Operating in mainly exclusionary ways it can no longer serve as a medium for citizens’ struggle for rights. This development has paved the way for right-wing populism to rise. To illustrate this argument in more detail, the paper finally focuses on the recent rise of right-wing populism in Germany.