In a changing world combined with uncertainties fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, policymaking is becoming ever more challenging for individuals, organizations, and most importantly governments. Dr. Andreas Rechkemmer, professor, College of Public Policy, reflects on the need for a renewed social contract for the post-pandemic period. This article expands on a recent series of Op-Eds that the author co-wrote with Dr. Deborah Brosnan and Dr. James Bohland for Fair Observer.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has not only upended life as we know it. It has also exposed the unpreparedness and inability of many governments to tackle and effectively manage large and complex risks and ensure community resilience. Two decades into the 21st century – further into an era called Anthropocene by climatologists and geologists alike – this sobering insight is of utmost concern. Pandemics, global warming, sea-level rise, floods and droughts, severe weather events, conflicts, forced migration, and the loss of critical ecosystem services are all on the rise. They often hit countries and communities already struggling from economic crises, political instability, poverty, inequality, and injustice. Together, such trajectories and events add up and create a perfect storm that can quickly overwhelm institutions and policymakers and fundamentally threaten societies.
At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic coincides with a worldwide movement toward more authoritarianism and fewer civil liberties — a movement that has been going on for some time, well before the outbreak. Populism, conspiracy theories, disinformation campaigns, right-wing political extremism, and the rise of autocratic governance are not new phenomena. However, their convolution and combined speed, intensity, and scale are unprecedented and have already led to a significant decline of legitimacy in policy making, attacking the very foundation of modern human civilization. In this unfolding drama, COVID-19 has led to a new act, if not a climax — and appears to accelerate the preexisting tendencies toward undoing the social contract on which liberal democracies and other forms of legitimate governance are based.
Therefore, a renewed social contract (an ideal type contract of everyone with everyone and between citizens and their governments) is required in many countries to ensure the survival of legitimate governance, the rule of law, democratic and participatory norms, civil liberties as well as civic duties in an era of ever-increasing global risks. Defining the nature of such contracts and how to implement them is an urgent challenge facing all citizens and policymakers in the next decade. It will take major transformations of social, institutional, and individual behaviors to address and mitigate Anthropocene’s crises and build long-term resilience. Major global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic pose enormous risks, but they also come with opportunities. This is the hour for a renewal of the idea of the common good — based on the principles of truth, equality, shared responsibility, solidarity, and legitimacy.
The concept of the social contract is foundational to governance. Yet it is seen by some as antiquated, not in alignment with contemporary neoliberal ideology where contractual terms are transactional in nature. Still, the relationships between citizens and governments that sustain legitimate and democratic tenets through times of crises — be it a pandemic or the risks associated with climate change — require an understanding of the “glue” that binds us together as nations. Much will depend on our ability to reestablish that “glue.” If we succeed, the outcome will be a more resilient society. If we fail, chaos will reign. Post-pandemic, governments, and policymakers will have to invest in that “glue” or, if they don’t, perish.
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