Björn Bremer

Björn Bremer

Political Economist at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG)

Blog posts

2022

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2021

MAX CPE Program Announced

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We are pleased to announce the program of the Max Planck Online Workshop in Comparative Political Economy (MAX CPE), a new monthly online seminar series in comparative political economy hosted by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.

2020

Max Planck Online Workshop in Comparative Political Economy (MAX CPE)

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We are pleased to announce the launch of the Max Planck Online Workshop in Comparative Political Economy (MAX CPE), a new monthly online seminar series in comparative political economy hosted by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.

2019

Germany’s growth model under attack?

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On his last visit to Berlin in the beginning of May, French President Emmanuel Macron said that “the German growth model has perhaps run its course”. He argued that the economic reforms that Germany made in the early 2000s allowed the country to benefit from imbalances within the Eurozone, but that these imbalances have created problems for the rest of Europe, which are too large to ignore.

Why Germany and the US Should Embark on a Large-Scale Investment Program Now

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In recent years, fiscal policy in Germany and the US has diverged. In response to the financial crisis both countries implemented large stimulus programs, but over time the policy priorities shifted: German finance ministers became obsessed with balancing the budget, while the Trump administration slashed taxes.

2018

2017

The Crisis of the SPD: Where Now for Germany’s Social Democrats?

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The German SPD hit a historic low in the 2017 federal elections. The 20.5 per cent of votes received was the party’s worst result since the Second World War. On the evening of the election, Martin Schulz called the result a “bitter defeat”, which was still something of an understatement. Despite the short revival of the SPD in the polls at the beginning of the year, the party was defeated for the fourth Bundestag election in a row. When compared to 1998, when Gerhard Schröder won 40.9 per cent, the party’s vote share has nearly halved over the last two decades. The party has now been thrown into a deep and existential crisis.

Hope for Europe’s Social Democrats? Why Martin Schulz Might Reinvigorate the SPD but Struggle To Become Chancellor

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The recent global economic crisis also led to a crisis of social democratic parties. Lacking clear ideas, the parties struggled to respond to the economic malaise and failed to be a strong political force in the context of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. As a result, the average vote share of social democratic parties in Western Europe dropped to an unprecedented low since 1945 (figure 1), leaving them at risk of sliding into political insignificance. In some countries, the far left benefited from this crisis of social democratic parties and much has been written about the causes behind the success of Alexis Tsipras, Jeremy Corbyn, or Bernie Sanders, who are spearheading these socialist insurgencies. However, except for Syriza in Greece, the far left failed to win elections and was unable to stop the wave of right-wing populism that is currently rolling across the Western world. At the beginning of 2017, commentators are instead looking to figures from the centre-left to stop this wave.

2016

A few Personal Thoughts After the 2016 American Election

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Four years ago, I was celebrating Barack Obama’s second election victory with friends in front of the White House. We were dancing in the streets and chanting “Four more years.” Today, I have woken up in a different world, which left me speechless, sad, and profoundly shocked. No more chanting, no more dancing.