Pandemic, Governance and Communication: The Curious Case of Covid-19 by Dipankar Sinha

Author:Dipankar Sinha [Sinha, Dipankar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Medical, Privacy & Surveillance, Media & Internet, Epidemiology, Globalization, Social Science, Political Science, Political Process, American Government, General
ISBN: 9781003247388
Google: JhSxzgEACAAJ
Goodreads: 59383257
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

Even after providing important instances of such state functions Lapavitsas admits to having remained ‘unclear’ as to what direction the global capitalism will take as it reels under the shock of coronavirus. He does see the possibility that colossal power of the state and its ability to intervene in both economy and society possibly resultingin a more authoritarian form of controlled capitalism in which the interests of the corporate and financial elite would be paramount. Importantly, he makes a call to the socialists to ‘assess carefully and critically’ the actions taken by the states to deal with the coronavirus crisis. Resonating him another critical observer (Achcar, 2020) of neoliberalism issues ‘don’t bet on it’ advice on the question of self-extinction of neoliberalism.

All said and done, the pandemic crisis is not to be the treated as the end of the search for alternatives. As Lent (2020) points out, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste, and this crisis is to be manoeuvred for creating an alternative world order based on a ‘transformed society’, marked by meaningful participation of each one of us. He makes a plea to understand coronavirus as a political crucible, melting down and reshaping many of our current norms. Points taken, but the break between good intentions and practical implementation is found too often. Lent persuades others to ‘think bigger’ but he himself asks – what’s next? – a difficult question without which the search for alternatives is meaningless. There are of course good intentions in the socialist critiques’ call for a transformative state which is supposed to be driven by collective responsibility, solidarity, community engagement, community action and so forth. But exactly how it would come into being is not very clear. Apart from the fact that the fall of the neoliberal-capitalist states in near future is a distant possibility for many other reasons, no less because of the fact that even the officially socialist states like China, Vietnam and Cuba are being far more hospitable to the market forces than they were in the past. This trend considerably weakens the status of socialism as the gold standard in alternative governing. The abovementioned excerpt from Prashad exemplifies the problem. There is much truth in what he writes about the pitfalls and failures of neoliberalism but when it comes to what he calls the ‘validation of the socialist cause’ by eliminating neoliberal tenets and practices from the face of the earth it entails an uphill struggle for the socialists. The clarion call for celebrating the death of neoliberalism-capitalism combine during the financial crisis in 2007–2008 has proved to be unfounded as neoliberalism continues to survive. Its capacity for mutation ensures its survival in more than one way. Referring to the excessive optimism about the impending downfall of the neoliberal project following the financial crash of 2007–2008 Mirowski (2013:1) presents a very realistic account in a slightly self-critical tone of the disappointing outcome in Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: How Neoliberalism Survived the Financial Meltdown:

Fast forward to 2011.

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