Abstract

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, discussion of alternatives to capitalism has increasingly ceded place to discussion of alternative "models" of capitalism. In this literature, "Anglo-Saxon" capitalism is frequently opposed to "Rhenish" capitalism. A classic example of the idiom is Michel Albert's Capitalism Against Capitalism. Albert and other "rhenanophiles" favorably contrast the generous social welfare provisions characteristic of the German "social market" economy to the relative lack of social protection that obtains in the United States and Great Britain. The "solidarity" exhibited within the "Rhenish" model is, however, limited to members of the "national community." Millions of "foreigners" in Germany continue to have a legal status that not only restricts their access to social benefits, but makes them subject to expulsion. The withholding of citizenship discharges the same economic function as the generalized suppression of social welfare in "Anglo-Saxon" capitalism: viz, controlling "surplus" population and thus social costs.