This episode of The Dig is brought to you by our listeners who support us at patreon.com

and by Verso Books, which has loads of great left-wing titles, perfect for dig listeners like you.

One that you might like is Germany's hidden crisis, social decline in the heart of Europe, by Oliver Nactwe.

Upward social mobility represented a core promise of life under the old West German welfare state, in which millions of skilled workers upgraded their

Volkswagen to Audies, bought their first homes, and sent their children to university. Not so in

today's federal republic, where the gears of the

so-called elevator society have long since ground to a halt. In the absence of the social

mobility of yesterday, widespread social exhaustion and anxiety have emerged across mainstream

society.

Oliver Nachtwey analyzes the reasons for this social rupture in post-war German society and investigates the potential conflict emerging as a result.

He concludes that although the country has managed to muddle through thus far,

simmering tensions beneath the surface nevertheless threatened to

undermine the German system's stability in the years to come. Germany's hidden crisis, social

decline in the heart of Europe by Oliver Nachtwe. Out now from Verso Books.

Welcome to The Dig, a podcast from Jacobin Magazine.

My name is Daniel Denver, and I'm broadcasting from Providence, Rhode Island. What is democracy? It's a very

good question, but one that too few in the political establishment bother to ask. Instead,

they simply warn that democracy, which they self-servingly conflate with the pre-Donald Trump

status quo, is under threat from Donald Trump.

Trump, of course, threatens all sorts of things.

But too often, what establishment figures mean by a threat to democracy is a threat to

American political norms and institutions.

...