Transformation of state function in the post-pandemic period
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Date
2021
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University Press
Abstract
In the history of mankind, one can count on one fingers the years with
which mankind has associations with specific historical events: 1453 - the
fall of Constantinople, 1492 - the discovery of America, 1789 - the beginning
of the Great French Revolution. With high probability, 2020 will enter in the
history of humanity as the year of the coronavirus pandemic, which has had
an incredibly great impact on economic, on social and political processes
almost all over the world, on interpersonal relations and on the psychological
state and expectations of the latter. It should be said unambiguously that
this epidemic can not be regarded as another force majeure. The COVID-19
pandemic revealed, on the one hand, the entire absurdity of the libertarian
view of the omnipotence of the market and, in contrast, emphasized the
importance of the stabilizing and organizing function of the state.
It is Fact that humankind and its institutions and intellectual elite met
with less readiness to the attack of Covid-19 and economic crises caused
by it. This was especially clearly manifested in the medical field, where in
the “brainstorming” regime it was necessary to simultaneously carry out
treatment and care to prevent the spread of the virus, and the development of
an appropriate therapeutic vaccine, and to minimize losses from a pandemic
and to ensure social protection of the population. The situation was and
remains so extraordinary to this day that figuratively speaking, states, their
medical (and not only) logistics had to learn walking skills during a forced
run.
Coping with the pandemic and the economic crisis caused by it is
possible only at the expense of the only institution that has the ability to
accumulate and use purposefully all resources and determines the rules of
citizens’ behavior - the State.
What is currently taking place in defining the role and function of
the state can be figuratively called as a reverse version of the “return of the prodigal son” or “the insight of King Lear”, which gradually regains its
immanent functions previously “voluntarily” transferred to the market.
Description
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Keywords
Globalization, coronavirus pandemic, functions of the state, social protection, internal stabilizers of the state
Citation
Economics and Business, №1, 2021, pp. 34-43