One of the best-known critical sociologists in the German-speaking world, Wolfgang Streeck, has seen his work receive growing attention from the international left over the past few years.

His most recent books have focused on the structural crisis of capitalism and the increasing extent to which it stands in contradiction with democracy — a contradiction to which he sees no immediate resolution, prompting him to ask how much longer capitalism can survive.

Jacobin‘s Loren Balhorn spoke with him about the prospects of the European Union, the role of the nation state, and the specter of populism.