What you need to know:
The coronavirus will leave us with many instructive lessons - good and bad. Even in the worst of human tragedies, there are always important lessons for the future.
Problem though is that we quickly forget and move on. One enduring lesson in the modern world is the critical role of a functioning public system and the infrastructure called the State.
It is difficult to talk about the State in abstract terms. It is easier to speak of the State in concrete terms because we live with the State every day in the form of the roads we use, the quality of air we breathe, the security we enjoy or the insecurity we endure, the safety of food and water we consume, etc.
When a big crisis erupts, whether financial, as happened in 2008 in the USA and around the world or health, as we are grappling with now, the ultimate fall-back is to bank on State intervention.
We do not hear the usual mantra of the magic of the free market supplying the necessary corrective measures to ameliorate a disaster such as a global pandemic.
Instead, it is the power and capability of the central State that is expected to make a difference. States that have well-equipped and properly developed public health systems can better respond to and control the ravages of a pandemic.
Considering the current trends, it is obvious that the capacity to act swiftly and rein in the spread of the coronavirus has a lot to do with the efficiency, coherency and coordinated capabilities of the central State.
China, Singapore and South Korea. In America, there is a deeply entrenched culture of sheer suspicion and distrust against the central State, the federal bureaucracy and the public sector as a whole.
This is especially among libertarian and conservative circles. In recent years, reigning in the ‘deep state’ has become a popular refrain and in fact a powerful campaign message among supporters of the incumbent president.
The ‘deep’ State in question here refers to the career personnel who superintend the government bureaucracy, and who make and implement decisions in a professional manner, independent of public sentiments, shielded at least in part from the politics of the day.
It is precisely the same ‘deep State’ through the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention at the frontline, providing guidance and advice in the face of unprecedented fear, panic and trepidation unleashed by the coronavirus.
The US Treasury and the Federal Reserve (the latter being the central bank), two key components of the same ‘deep State,’ have had to act swiftly by intervening in the currency markets and in the consumer economy to forestall a possible meltdown of the entire economy.
Market ‘fundamentalists,’ those who maintain unfailing faith in the magic of free markets and beret or at a minimum discount the value of a strong and independent State infrastructure, often want everything to be left to the private sector of profit seekers. But when there is a crisis, where there is uncertainty and it is not clear that a profit can accrue, the free-marketers have no answers.
Individual free enterprise is critical for productivity, innovation, and wealth creation, which help in bringing about socioeconomic transformation. Seldom though can this happen without collective security and investment in public institutions and infrastructures.
Nations that are more socially prosperous, whose citizens live happier, longer lives and where the quality of life is higher, tend to have better built public institutions, agencies and bodies that form the larger entity generally called the State.
By contrast, societies that have runaway and rapacious capitalism, characterised by untamed corporate grid and unlimited pursuit of profit tend to have many of their citizens in the poor brackets, glaring income and wealth disparities and social disharmony. In these nations, the State is either underdeveloped or is undercut by private interests.
The issue is not whether a strong and powerful central state is good or bad; like many other things in life, it can potentially be both. The real challenge is how the state, specially the individuals who wield state power and who exercise authority on behalf of the public, are held to account and made to serve the interests of society prudently.
The machinery of the state is not just crucial to the needs of the weak and vulnerable in society, who in times of crises, are in utter desperation, it benefits especially the rich and powerful with loan guarantees, bailouts to their businesses and protection both in normal times and in difficult moments.
Khisa is assistant professor at North Carolina State University (USA).
[email protected]
Why State strength matters for all - the poor and rich
The coronavirus will leave us with many instructive lessons - good and bad. Even in the worst of human tragedies, there are always important lessons for the future.
Problem though is that we quickly forget and move on. One enduring lesson in the modern world is the critical role of a functioning public system and the infrastructure called the State.
It is difficult to talk about the State in abstract terms. It is easier to speak of the State in concrete terms because we live with the State every day in the form of the roads we use, the quality of air we breathe, the security we enjoy or the insecurity we endure, the safety of food and water we consume, etc.
When a big crisis erupts, whether financial, as happened in 2008 in the USA and around the world or health, as we are grappling with now, the ultimate fall-back is to bank on State intervention.
We do not hear the usual mantra of the magic of the free market supplying the necessary corrective measures to ameliorate a disaster such as a global pandemic.
Instead, it is the power and capability of the central State that is expected to make a difference. States that have well-equipped and properly developed public health systems can better respond to and control the ravages of a pandemic.
Considering the current trends, it is obvious that the capacity to act swiftly and rein in the spread of the coronavirus has a lot to do with the efficiency, coherency and coordinated capabilities of the central State.
China, Singapore and South Korea. In America, there is a deeply entrenched culture of sheer suspicion and distrust against the central State, the federal bureaucracy and the public sector as a whole.
This is especially among libertarian and conservative circles. In recent years, reigning in the ‘deep state’ has become a popular refrain and in fact a powerful campaign message among supporters of the incumbent president.
The ‘deep’ State in question here refers to the career personnel who superintend the government bureaucracy, and who make and implement decisions in a professional manner, independent of public sentiments, shielded at least in part from the politics of the day.
It is precisely the same ‘deep State’ through the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention at the frontline, providing guidance and advice in the face of unprecedented fear, panic and trepidation unleashed by the coronavirus.
The US Treasury and the Federal Reserve (the latter being the central bank), two key components of the same ‘deep State,’ have had to act swiftly by intervening in the currency markets and in the consumer economy to forestall a possible meltdown of the entire economy.
Market ‘fundamentalists,’ those who maintain unfailing faith in the magic of free markets and beret or at a minimum discount the value of a strong and independent State infrastructure, often want everything to be left to the private sector of profit seekers. But when there is a crisis, where there is uncertainty and it is not clear that a profit can accrue, the free-marketers have no answers.
Individual free enterprise is critical for productivity, innovation, and wealth creation, which help in bringing about socioeconomic transformation. Seldom though can this happen without collective security and investment in public institutions and infrastructures.
Nations that are more socially prosperous, whose citizens live happier, longer lives and where the quality of life is higher, tend to have better built public institutions, agencies and bodies that form the larger entity generally called the State.
By contrast, societies that have runaway and rapacious capitalism, characterised by untamed corporate greed and unlimited pursuit of profit tend to have many of their citizens in the poor brackets, glaring income and wealth disparities and social disharmony. In these nations, the State is either underdeveloped or is undercut by private interests.
The issue is not whether a strong and powerful central state is good or bad; like many other things in life, it can potentially be both. The real challenge is how the state, specially the individuals who wield state power and who exercise authority on behalf of the public, are held to account and made to serve the interests of society prudently.
The machinery of the state is not just crucial to the needs of the weak and vulnerable in society, who in times of crises, are in utter desperation, it benefits especially the rich and powerful with loan guarantees, bailouts to their businesses and protection both in normal times and in difficult moments.
Khisa is assistant professor at North Carolina State University (USA).
[email protected]
