Abstract: The Covid-19 crisis has shown how the modern principle of individualism has been detrimental to states' efforts to limit the spread of the virus. Over the past 300 years, people have embraced this "entitlement revolution" and come to adopt an individualistic, self-centered worldview. Further, the erosion of intersubjective bonds has been encouraged by the spread of the ideology of.
The initial stages of the crisis clearly illustrated the inability of these statesmen to take proper measures to protect their citizens. All these examples of political dilettantism displayed by individuals who were able to effectively gain power by taking advantage of the new logic of. This is why many countries, such as Canada and Italy, resorted to softer containment measures in the early stages of the outbreak, relying mainly on people's goodwill and volunteerism.
At this level, the legacy of the rights revolution and the lack of respect for political authority showed their consequences. These events well illustrate the crisis of political authority resulting from the process described above. Once it is despised or mocked, or shows its powerlessness in the face of the unforeseen events of the world, nothing can stop the selfishness of men.
Why would they continue to make the financial sacrifices necessary to maintain services essential to community sustainability.
The Resurgence of the Nation-State and the Future of Globalization
This was also shown in the early stages of the crisis when people did not call for international cooperation, but for the closing of state borders. On the contrary, this crisis is perceived as a direct consequence of the delinquency of the nation-state in favor of its replacement by the forces of globalization and markets28. Unfortunately, having lost their capacity for collective self-determination in favor of the heteronomous forces of the market economy that is entirely.
From this perspective, this crisis offers societies a great opportunity to regain their capacity to control the forces of the market economy, to collectively plan the way they are organized, and to play an active role in the common welfare of their people. In fact, as has been argued by Dimitrios Karmis and Jocelyn Maclure33, a monistic conception of identity was dominant until the second half of the 20th century thanks to the creation of the European Union. The EU was heavily criticized for facilitating the spread of the virus, and member states showed an explicit form of selfishness towards their fellow citizens living in other countries.
However, the initial refusal, largely led by the Netherlands, simply condemned several of their so-called fellow citizens living in Italy and Spain to remain at the mercy of the virus. The desire to avoid a repeat of two major bloody conflicts fueled by the dark side of nationalism led to the creation of the European Union. Moreover, the resurgence of the importance of national borders in the collective imagination may result in another casualty – globalization.
Many citizens and political leaders see loose borders as the main cause of the rapid spread of the virus. Because of his apocalyptic vision, this crisis can serve as the ultimate wake-up call that will lead to a fundamental shift in the organization of the world economy. As previously mentioned, the need to reassert political control over the forces of the market and international trade is essential and unavoidable in the current context.
This implies a re-establishment of politics as the primary field affecting people's lives and the revival of the spirit of communities. At present, for reasons previously discussed, it now seems obvious in the eyes of many that nation-states will be the central entities at the heart of this reorganization of world order. The IMF has estimated that the coronavirus crisis will lead to a contraction of global GDP by 3% in 202049.
The downside of accumulating lower profits will be offset by the stability of the system in which they will operate. In this regard, we often think of the European Union as the first attempt to create a supranational political entity.
On the Risk of a Thucydides’s Trap
Indeed, the world economy has ground to a halt in the first half of 2020 due to the imposition of measures that have disrupted supply chains and, therefore, weakened global demand for Chinese exports in the short term and heavily impacted its sector producer. These trends may become more permanent if the US and European economies seek self-sufficiency after the crisis. This decision would harm the growth of the Chinese economy, as it would disrupt its trade ties with the US and EU economies.
This of course partly explains why China has repeatedly tried to reassure the rest of the world by sending comforting messages that it is able to meet the high demands of affected countries for medicine, and why it has mostly exported or donated protective equipment, such as masks. as well as ventilators. Indeed, there is no doubt that the crisis will serve as a wake-up call to the general public, which was unaware of the extent of the economic dependence of Western states on China. While the economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus could lead to an acceleration of the decoupling of the Chinese and US economies, companies were already considering outsourcing their production chains since the Trump administration threatened to impose tariffs on goods made in China.
As mentioned earlier, whatever form the redefinition of globalization will take, it seems that China will be on the losing end, as it will no longer be the factory of the world. In the case of the BRI, the potential creation of a protected European market could also prevent Chinese companies from acquiring strategic infrastructure – namely ports – without which their pharaonic project is doomed. 63 A joint survey conducted in March 2020 by the American chambers of commerce in Beijing and Shanghai has shown that the proportion of their members who believed that the decoupling of the two economies was impossible fell to 44% from 66% in the previous study conducted before the coronavirus crisis.
Others have considered the possibility of asking China to pay reparations for being responsible for the outbreak. Not only are you monitoring your people, you're also endangering them – and the rest of the world. China's "deglobalization" and its turn toward its domestic economy can also be explained as a byproduct of the country's openness to capital and foreign investment since the 1980s, with Chinese patriotism.
When we ask ourselves who stands to gain more from deglobalization and the decoupling of the Chinese and American economies, it is clear that China is the answer. 73 Johnny Hi, Felix Poh, Jia Zhou, and Daniel Zipser, “China Consumer Report 2020: The Many Faces of the Chinese Consumer,” December 2019. Therefore, China has no reason to worry about a possible re-escalation of globalization at the national level or regional under the impulse of the United States or the European Union, as it is a course of action that it has already taken.
The risk of market saturation is not new to the study of capitalism, as it had already been identified by the economist Jean-Charles Sismondi in the 19th century as one of the system's biggest flaws. Because of this risk, China may also follow the already discussed path to the regionalization of its economic market.
