Regieren durch Solidarität?

Abstract

References to solidarity are all but omnipresent. This high regard for solidarity is closely related to the important role which solidarity plays as a resource of the welfare state and its inclusive policies. Social insurance and the trade unions as components of the political system stood in the foreground for over a century. In an age in which globalisation intensifies the problems of stability in the welfare state, this organised solidarity also begins to falter. At the same time more basic variants of solidarity are gaining importance. The small networks of daily life, which are distant from functional systems, are increasingly coming within the range of perception of the »new welfare state« and could be planned and consumed as elements of reorganising strategies – with once again new problems appearing on the horizon.