Abstract
The main thesis of this text is that politics has lost its claim to make gener-ally valid decisions for the whole of society. It interprets both Donald Trump and the ‘Alternative für Deutschland’ (AfD) as solutions to that problem. By understanding the votes of their supporters not so much as votes for a per-son or a party, but as votes against the political system itself, it tries to avoid the usual demonization of populist politics and persons and, instead, focuses on social functions and structures.
Keyword(s)
Crisis of politics, functional differentiation, Democracy, rationality, populism