Covid-19 and the Global Political Economy investigates and explores how far and in what ways the Covid-19 pandemic is challenging, restructuring, and perhaps remaking aspects of the global political economy.
Since the 1970s, neoliberal capitalism has been the guiding principle of global development: fiscal discipline, privatisations, deregulation, the liberalisation of trade and investment regimes, and lower corporate and wealth taxation. But, after Covid-19, will these trends continue, particularly when states are continuing to struggle with overcoming the pandemic and violating one of neoliberalism’s key principles: balanced budgets? The pandemic has exposed the fragility of the global political economy, and it can be argued that the intensification of global trade, tourism, and finance over the past 30 years has facilitated the spread of infectious diseases such as Covid-19. Therefore, economies in lockdown, jittery markets, and massive government spending have sparked interest in potentially re-evaluating certain features of the global political economy. This volume brings together leading and upcoming critical scholars in international relations and international political economy to provide novel, timely, and innovative research on how the Covid-19 pandemic is impacting (and will continue to impact) the global economy in important dimensions, including state fiscal policy, monetary policy, the accumulation of debt, health and social reproduction, and the future of austerity and the fate of neoliberalism.
This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and experts in international relations and international political economy, as well as history, anthropology, political science, sociology, cultural studies, economics, development studies, and human geography.
Author(s): Tim Di Muzio, Matt Dow
Series: RIPE Series in Global Political Economy
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 316
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Notes On Contributors
Abbreviations
Introduction: The Covid-19 Pandemic, International Political Economy, and Social Reproduction
Part I: Global Power, Inequality, and Climate Change
Part II: Global Health, Social Care, and Reproduction During the Covid-19 Pandemic
Part III: The Future of Production, Money, Energy, and Food Regimes
Notes
Part I Global Power, Inequality, and Climate Change
1 “A Once in a Lifetime Opportunity”: Covid-19 in the Age of Finance
Introduction
Finance as a Sovereign State
Who Determines National and Global Economic Policy?
Reducing the Threat of Inflation
Reducing the Threat of Taxation
Reducing the Threat of Rising Wages
Reducing the Threat of the Cost of Negative Externalities
Reducing the Threat of a Lack of Investment Opportunities
Reducing the Threat of Anti-Trust Legislation
Reducing the Threat of Default
Conclusion
Note
2 The Billionaire Boom: Capital as Power and the Distribution of Wealth
Introduction
The Rise of the Billionaire Class
Capital as Power and the Billionaire Class
Should Billionaires Exist?
Conclusion
Notes
3 Neoliberalism, Race, and Ignorance in an Era of Covid-19
Introduction
Adorno On Irrationalism
The Neoliberal Premise
The Role of Social Media
Studying Ignorance
Race and Ignorance
Conclusion
4 Covid-19: Decarbonisation Under Duress
Introduction
Fossil Fuels, Finance and Decarbonisation
The Scientific Rationale for Deep Decarbonisation
Mainstream Political Discourse: The Second Major Obstacle to Decarbonisation
The Looting of National Economies By Global Elites and Why Tax Havens Should Be Raided to Finance Global Decarbonisation
Conclusion
Notes
5 Engineering the Coronaverse: The Wild, Wild Sovereignty of Big Meat in the Age of the Corporate State
Introduction
A “Crisis Epidemiology” of Meatpacking and COVID in the U.S. South
Case Study of North Carolina
Case Study of Georgia
Unregulated Workplaces; Expendable Workers
Corporate Rule—Cowboys in the White House
Global Meat—Outlaws On the Run
Conclusion—“Gun Fight at the OK Corral”
Notes
Bibliography
Part II Global Health, Social Care, and Reproduction During the Covid-19 Pandemic
6 Global Health, Covid-19 and the Future of Neoliberalism
Introduction
Postwar Capitalist Development and Global Health, 1945–1980
Neoliberalism, Risk Privatisation and the Reconfiguration of Public Health Financing, 1980–2008
The Dialectical Effects of Neoliberalism On Population Health
Covid-19 and State Responses to the Crisis
“A Pandemic of Poverty”
Lessons From the Covid-19 Crisis and Alternatives to Neoliberalism: Recovering and Prioritising the Social
Notes
7 From Operation Warp Speed to TRIPS: Vaccines as Assets
Introduction
Operation Warp Speed and War-Biomedical Logics
Asset Accumulation Logics
TRIPS and Intellectual Property Logics
Conclusion
8 Covid-19 and the Economy of Care: Disability and Aged Care Services Into the Future
Introduction
The Pre-Pandemic Care Sector Landscape
The Experiences of People With Disability, Older People and Care Workers During the Pandemic
Opportunities for Future Reform of the Care Sector
Invest in the Care Sector Workforce and Improve Pay and Employment Conditions
Invest in Supported Independent Living and Community Living Options
Establish Permanent Advisory Bodies to Give Older People and People With Disability a Voice in Policy Decisions
Foreground Human Rights in Future Care Policy, Planning and Practice
Conclusion
Notes
Part III The Future of Production, Money, Energy, and Food Regimes
9 Covid-19 and the Future of Work: Continuity and Change in Workplace Precarity
Introduction
The Temporality and Rhythm of Precarisation
Precarisation as Trend, Precarisation as Rupture
Unemployment
Income Insecurity
Collective Voice and Associational Power
New Features of Work During the Covid-19 Recession
Office Work, Remote Work and Working From Home (WFH)
Food and Accommodation
Retail Trade, Online Shopping, and Logistics
Discussion and Conclusion: New Vectors in Precarisation?
Note
10 MMT, the Pandemic, and the Fiscal Deficit Fright
Power, Fiscal Lock-In and Pauperism
MMT, Free Lunches and the Pandemic
The Dearth of Money Revisited and Commercial Banks
Conclusion
Notes
11 Carbon Capitalism, the Social Forces of Annihilation, and the Future of Energy
Introduction
A New Global Energy Order?
Neoliberal Carbon Capitalism and Its Discontents
Carbon Inequality, Petro-Market Civilisation, and the Social Forces of Annihilation
Conclusion
Notes
12 Covid-19 and the Future of Food
Introduction
Food Regime Machinations
Privatisation and the United Nations
Turning Point in the Food Regime?
China in the Food Regime
Emancipatory Possibilities
Conclusion
Notes
Conclusion The Ongoing Covid-19 Dystopia: A Crossroads for Critical IPE and Humanity
Introduction
Main Achievements
The Crossroads of Multiple Crises
Neoliberalism, the Pandemic and Post-Capitalism?
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
