Pandemic Power: The Covid Response and the Erosion of Democracy - A Liberal Critique

Starting in March 2020, the Covid crisis has resulted in widely shared practices of public shaming, weaponization of moral virtue, and the dehumanization of those we disagree with. Even though the existential aim of social sciences is debate and disagreement to further knowledge, a sudden groupthink repurposed those as the expression of alleged alt-right extremism. This end of the discussion has allowed the Covid measures to simultaneously wreak havoc on public health and undermine the rule of law. This volume argues that grounded criticism must be urgently restored within social sciences and public health, as the fate of democracy depends on the respect for scientific discussion and on the ability of the academic world to be heard in political debates. In order to do so, the volume delves into the way in which the normalization of fear and social compliance has laid the groundwork before and during Covid for what some call digital authoritarianism; it explores the collateral damage wrought by lockdowns and censorship as a case study in biopolitical issues; it examines the instrumentalization of science and expertise during the pandemic; it assesses the detrimental impact of Covid policies on our democratic institutions; and it scrutinizes the response of liberals to Covid, probing the pandemic as a moral and intellectual crisis for the liberal left.