Reflections on the COVID moment and life beyond neoliberalism

Abstract

The COVID pandemic has demonstrated the weakness of neoliberalism by showing the importance of public services, workers’ need for security, and a heightened awareness of collective interdependence. Economic theory recognises the deficiencies of depending on market forces by accepting certain grounds for public intervention, including public and collective goods and negative externalities. Acceptance of the human contribution to climate change has massively increased their importance. The pandemic has had similar effects. The very rich may be able to escape to safe places, but the great mass of us are dependent on the support of each other, often through a mobilisation of resources that only states can organise. While much of the community that was rediscovered during the pandemic was highly local, damage to the climate and the spread of disease cannot be contained within national boundaries; cooperation has to be cross-national. It is therefore incompatible with an obsession with national sovereignty. For Europeans the institutions of the EU are central.

Cui bono – business or labour? Job retention policies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe

“…Government subsidies to largely compensate for working time reductions became a widespread and respected tool during the pandemic, also thanks to EU SURE funding. Establishing permanent STW schemes could be part of a broader reform triggered by the ‘COVID moment’ (Crouch, 2022) possibly leading to a ‘pandemic paradigm shift’ (Rubinić, 2020) increasing welfare state resilience and thereby strengthening Europe’s social model.…”

Essential or excluded? Union pressures and state responses to platform work in three liberal market economies

“…Crouch (2022: 42) argues that COVID-19 provided the opportunity for ‘a reset of political positions’, in which governments can learn lessons from recognising flaws in the labour market. Unions are often required to show governments how labour market flaws are deleterious for workers and society, however.…”

Protective action in the workplace in the time of COVID‐19: The role of worker representation

“…This is not a minor issue given the context of union decline and unions' crisis of legitimacy for some workers so those fostering organized labor are in need to regain workers' support and trust. 54 Again, direct communication could be promoted along with greater worker participation in the making of decisions and also special attention should be given to the situation, needs, and knowledge of workers under more precarious employment conditions.…”