How can we manage the pandemic? What will happen in its wake? Some believe the coronavirus crisis will lead spontaneously to a greater awareness of the dead ends of anarchic globalisation. They dream that the end to the crisis will also be, in one fell swoop, the end of deregulated capitalism.
Such optimism is questionable. The end of capitalism is not on the horizon. Meanwhile, and unfortunately, authoritarian and populist political tendencies are immune to the coronavirus. There is no single automatic, rational political outcome inherent to this crisis. Democracies will be severely tested, not only by the health crisis but also by the economic crisis to come.
When it comes to crises, Europe has ample experience. After 1945, Europe responded with a model of practical synergy between the state and capitalism. The welfare state’s architecture, boldly rebuilt, can inspire a unique response to the current crisis. The economist Eloi Laurent is right when he says, ‘The most useful lesson of the beginning of this crisis is also the most universal: the welfare state is the strategic institution for the 21st century’. But two dominant models are challenging the welfare state model today: the authoritarian state capitalist model and the right-wing populist model. They are shaping the policies responding to the corona crisis.
