COVID-19 and the Corpse of Neoliberal Globalization (original) (raw)
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COVID-19 AND THE DECLINE OF THE NEOLIBERAL PARADIGM
COVID-19 AND FOREIGN AID Nationalism and Global Development in a New World Order, 2022
Will neoliberalism remain the eternal patient, resolutely clinging on to its deathbed? Or will the COVID-19 pandemic eventually pave the way for a post-neoliberal world order? We claim in the following contribution with a focus on the Global Northwest that the neoliberal paradigm may have been eroded as a political project and even possibly as an economic doctrine as a result of the two “global macro events” (Leisering, 2021: 399) but that it proved surprisingly resilient as a cultural formation and a subtle technology of power. Rather than giving way to alternative paradigms, neoliberalism in many regions of the world skilfully changed its shape and developed new variants adapted to new economic and political circumstances. At the same time, however, the pandemic in contrast to the world financial crisis from 2008 has fostered a renaissance of the “caring state” that is concerned not only with the bailout of banks but also with the welfare of its citizens. It indicates a new form of governmentality that might foreshadow the emergence a post-neoliberal model. Our contribution is divided into four parts. First, we look at an astonishing paradox: although the neoliberal ideology has steadily lost support over the past 15 years, its prescriptions are so institutionally entrenched that they continue to determine socioeconomic policies. This was clearly demonstrated, we secondly argue, in the world financial crisis. It could have been an oath of revelation for neoliberalism, but the latter recovered quickly with the help of state intervention in favour of banks and capital markets. Although the first major crisis of the 21st century did fuel social polarisation and dissatisfaction with technocratic governance by political elites, the authoritarian-reactionary right-wing populism did not lead to questioning core economic elements of neoliberalism. Rather, it establishes a new, authoritarian-national phase of neoliberalism, which was most clearly demonstrated by the Brexit and Trump’s election as US president in 2016. The next major crisis of the 21st century, the COVID-19 pandemic, according to our third argument, brought about a state interventionism that went beyond the measures of the 2018 global financial crisis and led to the renaissance of the “caring state”. This undermined the legitimacy of neoliberalism not only among the “globalisation losers” but also among broad segments of the population. In many of the Western industrialised countries, the state gained new scope for action that went well beyond the basic neoliberal mission of ensuring free and fair competition. Yet, we maintain that state intervention does not mark the end of the neoliberal era and the return to a cherished Keynesian world order. The neoliberal project is characterised by its impressive flexibility and capacity to adapt to various crises, rendering it highly resilient even in the face of state intervention. A closer look at macroeconomic and fiscal policies during the COVID-19 pandemic reveals that the core ideological assumptions and structural asymmetries that are constitutive of the neoliberal world order largely remain untouched. Zooming in on the sectoral level, we show in the fourth section that the COVID-19 pandemic did shatter some of neoliberalism’s most dearly held assumptions, for instance, in the field of global health cooperation. Promising initiatives such as COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) and Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) provide cooperative templates that emphasise a rhetoric of global solidarity and in very practical terms break with key ideological tenants of the neoliberal orthodoxy such as market allocation and intellectual property rights. At the same time, the disappointing results in the implementation of COVAX illustrate once more the limitations of voluntary commitments and highlight the need for an internationally binding treaty on the global management of pandemics. In our concluding remarks, we discuss, finally, the impact of a possible paradigm shift in the Global Northwest on the conditions in the Global South and the redesign of development cooperation.
Neoliberal disease: COVID-19, co-pathogenesis and global health insecurities
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has at once exposed, exploited and exacerbated the health-damaging transformations in world order tied to neoliberal globalization. Our central argument is that the same neoliberal plans, policies and practices advanced globally in the name of promoting wealth have proved disastrous in terms of protecting health in the context of the pandemic. To explain why, we point to a combinatory cascade of socio-viral co-pathogenesis that we call neoliberal disease. From the vectors of vulnerability created by unequal and unstable market societies, to the reduced response capacities of market states and health systems, to the constrained ability of official global health security agencies and regulations to offer effective global health governance, we show how the virus has found weaknesses in a market-transformed global body politic that it has used to viral advantage. By thereby turning the inequalities and inadequacies of neoliberal societies and states into global hea...
COVID-19: Capitalist and postcapitalist perspectives
Human Geography
The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed weaknesses of capitalism as an economy and polity, and revealed the latent potential of postcapitalism. A novel coronavirus is more likely to arise given massive industrial agriculture; the state of health care sectors is a result of neoliberal policies; the pandemic’s impacts were characterised by capitalist inequities; economic repercussions expose a crisis-prone system. Conversely, responses included pandemic solidarity and sharply increasing mutual aid groups. Postcapitalist currents have been arguing for localisation of economies and autonomous governance for decades; the Covid-19 pandemic reveals the rationale for these calls and the urgency to apply such approaches.
COVID-19 pandemic crisis: Accelerator or decelerator of the new globalization?
In Ntokas, I., & Hazakis, K. (Eds), Επιστημονική Διημερίδα Τμήματος Οικονομικών Επιστημών: Τόμος Επιστημονικών Συμβολών [Scientific Workshop of the Department of Economics: Volume of Scientific Contributions] (pp. 13-24). Athens: Papazisi Publications. ISBN: 9789600238280., 2021
The current pandemic crisis of COVID-19 seems to be transforming the global socio-economic system in all dimensions and multiple directions. In this article, we argue that COVID-19 constitutes a “crisis in crisis” because it occurred at a time of an unfolding global transition. After a brief overview of the post-war phases of the evolution of global capitalism, we conclude that the impact of COVID-19 is catalytic, acting as an accelerator of developments. In this context, organizational adaptation and readaptation at all levels are imperative.
BRIQ, 2020
All crises – whether they are political, economic, organizational, societal or medical – have one decisive quality: they expose the strengths and weaknesses of the affected system and of all its members. COVID-19 challenges a liberal economic system where personal security, individual comfort and well-being, and the accumulation of wealth are considered to be the highest values. These values, and the way of life that goes with them, are still powerful motivational catalysts in societies based on materialism. Indeed, the free exchange of goods and services, individual mobility, the international flexibilization of production and distribution – all that we call globalization or as an eponym, “global capitalism” (Beckert, 2014) – carry deep, intrinsic risks. One of the most obvious outcomes of the coronavirus crisis is to reveal how easily this interdependent system between global players – enterprises, institutions and states – can be disrupted, damaged and partially destroyed. Those countries that succeeded in fighting, in as fast and draconian as possible, the COVID-19 pandemic will be the global winners of this race against time and spread. Among these countries will certainly be China, South Korea and Singapore, as they all entered the crisis in its early stages and quickly established strict, coherent and elaborate medical regimes (Welter, 2020). The economy of the Eurozone, already weakened before the pandemic, has suffered enormously and will not recover soon. Unemployment rates are already increasing dramatically in Southern Europe. Europe, and the E.U. as a political idea and visionary project for so many decades and generations, are facing harder times. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, authoritarian and reactionary neonationalist ideas are likely to gain strength, while the world economy may experience an enduring recession, destroying wealth and stability, and challenging – if not changing – the existing global order. COVID-19 could mark a crucial historical moment: the end of the laissez-faire era, not only in economics and finance, but also in politics, culture and private life.
Globalisation: Rethinking Development in the Context of the Pandemic
Space and Culture, India
The stark reality of human existence with a predictable 90 per cent of most reported cases emerging from these showcases of development, urbanisation, and industrialisation — our cities and towns tell us something that we cannot ignore. The cities took the brunt and revelled as the epicentres of the pandemic and a public health disaster, with the lockdowns remaining prolonged, severe, and even punitive in many cities of the world. We discuss here, the impacts of unprecedented crisis as we continue to rely on a globalised economy, and gaze at the helplessness with which the state handles our lives and appears to compromise our destinies through in a market full of uneven players. COVID-19 first hit the global power centres, the developed nations, and the business capitals in developing countries. Excited holidaymakers cruising passenger returnees from Ruby Princess began infecting others and those others infected capital cities like Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. It is intriguing a...