Post-pandemic Realities

This chapter reviews the impact of COVID-19 across the economy, politics and the dominant ideologies. The economic contraction caused by the pandemic was the most severe since the dawn of capitalism. The speed of the collapse was stunning, and it led most governments to draw up emergency plans that, at least initially, were based on the experience with the GFC. However, it rapidly became clear that this was much bigger and it had wider implications. The economic policy measures adapted accordingly and, in different ways, all countries managed to contain the disaster. The pandemic had more subtle but equally corrosive implications for the political systems and ideologies of neoliberalism, for example, strengthening some leaders and weakening others. Just as interestingly, examination of the ideological implications of the pandemic shows important faultlines in neoliberal thought.