141 lines
4.7 KiB
YAML
141 lines
4.7 KiB
YAML
abstract: 'Beyond the insidious and morally contemptible personality of the
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authoritarian political leaders that have emerged in the last decade,
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the political ``supply{''''} of populism responds to a real ``demand{''''}
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for popular policies that exists in advanced societies. This demands a
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rebalancing of economic policies in favour of the working classes, the
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middle classes and the social groups that have not benefited from the
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economic growth of the last decades.
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This social demand responds to an objective cause: the increase in
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inequalities and economic insecurity. Coinciding with the neoliberal
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shift in social and economic policies that accompanied the shift to
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conservatism in the late 1970s and with the hyper-globalization and the
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change of skin that global corporate capitalism experienced from the
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1990s onward, large groups of middle classes in developed countries saw
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their jobs, their welfare, their opportunities, and the lifestyles of
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the communities in which they lived disappear or deteriorate. The
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Covid-19 pandemic has only accentuated these inequalities.
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This malaise with inequality and economic insecurity is fertile ground
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for political polarization and authoritarian political populism. In this
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sense, inequality and economic insecurity have acted as a powerful
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solvent of the glue that every liberal society needs to function
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harmoniously, to make the market economy inclusive, and to prevent
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democracy from falling into the chaos of authoritarian populism.
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The challenge now is to rebuild that glue, as it was done after the
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Great Depression of the 1930s and World War 11. This essay argues,
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first, that this glue must come from a new post-pandemic social
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contract. Secondly, that the core of that new social contract is in the
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reform of the enterprise to correct the misallocation of surplus (value
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added) between wages, top management salaries and dividends.
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The correction of this malfunctioning distribution requires
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investigating its causes. Here it is argued that there are two. On the
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one hand, the bias that capitalism acquired from the eighties in benefit
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of shareholders and to the detriment of workers, suppliers, customers
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and communities. On the other hand, that corporate concentration and the
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market power acquired by large corporations has led to stagnation of
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real wages and the precarization of employment.
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The malfunctioning of distribution is not, however, the only source of
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inequality and economic insecurity. They also come from the
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malfunctioning of pre-distribution. To the extent that technological
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change has opened a gap between the capabilities and skills of the
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population and the professional profiles needed by companies, this gap
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brings about inequality of income and employment opportunities. On the
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other hand, the redistributive mechanisms of the Welfare State, both
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taxes and social programs, have seen their capacity to correct the
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inequality produced by the economy reduced.
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To respond to this inequality and economic insecurity, the political
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offer of new social contracts is wide and varied: the neoliberal, the
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extreme right, the extreme left and the radical progressive. All try to
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respond to the problem of distribution, but they do so through different
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paths, depending on whether they emphasize pre-distribution,
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redistribution, or distribution. The historical experience of the 1930s
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teaches us that not everyone is well reconciled with the future.
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A new progressive social contract must be based on the recovery of the
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fundamental role of the third pillar of prosperity: the Social Economy.
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Its abandonment in recent decades in favour of the market and the State
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is one of the causes of the inability of market economies to generate
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good jobs now.'
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affiliation: 'Costas, A (Corresponding Author), Univ Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
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Costas, Anton, Univ Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.'
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author: Costas, Anton
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author-email: acostas@ub.edu
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author_list:
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- family: Costas
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given: Anton
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da: '2023-09-28'
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doi: 10.7203/CIRIEC-E.100.18715
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eissn: 1989-6816
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files: []
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issn: 0213-8093
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journal: CIRIEC-ESPANA REVISTA DE ECONOMIA PUBLICA SOCIAL Y COOPERATIVA
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keywords: Social contract; progress; democracy; Social Economy; pandemic
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language: Spanish
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month: NOV
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number-of-cited-references: '15'
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pages: 11-29
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papis_id: 1a5fa39d9a605b09bf156d650042531b
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ref: Costas2020newpostpandemic
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times-cited: '2'
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title: A new post-pandemic social contract. The role of the Social Economy
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type: article
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unique-id: WOS:000595937600001
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usage-count-last-180-days: '1'
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usage-count-since-2013: '15'
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volume: '100'
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web-of-science-categories: Economics
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year: '2020'
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