The weak neutral current

This is a review of electroweak precision physics with particular emphasis on low-energy precision measurements in the neutral current sector of the electroweak theory and includes future experimental prospects and the theoretical challenges one faces to interpret these observables. Within the minimal Standard Model they serve as determinations of the weak mixing angle which are competitive with and complementary to those obtained near the Z -resonance. In the context of new physics beyond the Standard Model these measurements are crucial to discriminate between models and to reduce the allowed parameter space within a given model. We illustrate this for the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model with or without R -parity.