BÜRGERUNI: "Trump - Democracy and Europe"

The current policy in the USA represents a break with the prevailing understanding of politics, society and the economy on many levels.

On the one hand, Trump runs the US state like a corporation, bypassing Congress and the constitution via emergency decrees. Corruption follows a gift logic in which donations to Trump (or his family) secure privileges and tributes (tariffs) make countries dependent. This creates an empire without colonies, post-territorial via financial/data sanctions.

On the other hand, there is a tech symbiosis with oligarchs (Musk, Thiel) who are trying to replace democracy with a "tech autocracy" through deregulation and AI surveillance. Post-liberal ideas (Yarvin, Deneen) propagate a management state without elections.

But the Trump policy does not stop at Europe either: Donald Trump uses toxic masculinity for allegiance (identity, representation) and threatens to destabilise the European Union with tariff deals. The EU must counter this with strategic autonomy.

What does this mean for the future? Are we experiencing a transition to a volatile geo-economy? Can the EU stand up as a democratic counter-model?

A lecture by Prof Dr em. Birger P. Priddat, Senior Researcher at the WittenLab. Zukunftslabor Studium fundamentale, Witten/Herdecke University.

Admission costs 7 euros (5 euros reduced). Tickets are available at the box office.

The Citizens' University is a cooperation between the vhs Witten | Wetter | Herdecke and the WittenLab. Zukunftslabor Studium fundamentale at Witten/Herdecke University.