The global financial crisis seems to have largely invoked two types of political reaction. These reactions can be understood as mere responses as how to deal most effectively with the crisis’ immediate economic implications, but they can also be seen in a broader sense, as I will do here, as reflecting a kind of political repertoire or cultural image of politics. This image of politics involves understandings of what politics stands for, what can be achieved by it, and who needs to be involved. I will suggest that the currently invoked understandings of politics imply in some ways outmoded and problematic forms of modern politics, which are unlikely to lead to the resolution of the crisis of ‘post-industrial society’ in a structural sense.