Demokratie und konzeptionelles Denken

Kaspar Villiger examines the influence of institutions, political culture and chance on human action and describes some of the misdirected incentives inherent in democracy. He calls for a policy that is oriented towards mature and self-responsible people, while at the same time giving the market economy sufficient freedom. Politics needs a conceptual basis that takes account of economic laws and allows voters to classify individual political measures. He explains this using two concrete examples. He shows that the debt brake was part of a comprehensive fiscal policy concept and that federalism must be based on clear political and economic principles. However, he also describes how, for example, referendums can give policymakers a different direction, which then requires a fundamental revision of the concept.