Town - Country - Frustration

The rift between town and country has never been as deep as it was during the federal elections of September 2021. The conflict is thus also shaping Germany's political landscape. The rise of right-wing populism is just one side of this coin. In this book, Lukas Haffert argues that the town-country divide always becomes especially severe when economic structures and lifestyles in larger towns and cities differ especially markedly from those in the country. He explains why these differences have been growing for some time in Germany's capitalist economic system and inquires into their political consequences. Haffert reveals the connections between growing town-country rifts and the rise of the AfD, the election victories of the Greens, and the fragmentation of the German party system. In the growing criticism being voiced against the supposedly out-of-touch elites in Berlin, he sees an attempt to give these differences an explosive political power.