Democracy and Demography: Intersectional Dimensions of German Politics

Feminist theory revealed liberal democracy as gendered masculine in a macrointersectional way that privileged racial-ethnic and economic power, enforced heteronormativity, and constructed gender-binary citizenship. Merely reformed to accommodate women, many brotherhood–breadwinner democracies now face deeper challenges. As the second demographic transition undermines the hegemony of binary gender relations, it reorganizes political conflict on an axis of reproductive politics. Germany’s Green and Alternative für Deutschland parties exemplify opposite ends of this axis. The Green clusters of issues reflect intersectional societal ideals that demasculinize democracy, while reactionary populism repoliticizes masculinity to defend the family–state relations of the breadwinner–brotherhood gender system.