Prospects of Social Democracy in a Post-Pandemic World

Context: Rising socio-economic tensions have provided challenges and opportunities to the future of social democracy in a post-pandemic world, with a central role for Social Democrats labours and the civil society. 

Challenges to the Future of Social Democracy

• Shifting of the support base: A technological-demographic change has been at work in shifting the support base of social democratic parties. 
• Rising professionalism – Low Empathy: Due to technological reforms and spread of education, rising white-collar professionals have become more materialistic and cannot empathize with the blue collars.
• Growth of Technology-based knowledge economy: at the cost of labour based manufacturing economy.
• Reinforced Labour Fragmentation:
• Due to technological-demographic divide between “Brahmanical” attitude of the white-collars and mistrust among blue-collars because of economic distance from the former.
• Large formal-informal divide in the developing countries.
• Rising Majoritarianism: The resentments of blue-collar workers are being used by the populist leaders worldwide to encourage xenophobia and distrust of experts.
• For E.g. In India, Turkey, and Indonesia such majoritarianism has taken the form of Hindu or Islamic fanaticism and intolerance against their respective Muslims, Kurds or Chinese.
• The decline of Global Supply Chains: Rising trade tensions and protectionism presents a challenge to domestic employment.
• Trade has to be combined with adequate social insurance (which is mostly absent) for those who may lose out.
• Retreat from Multilateral Institutions: particularly putting the poorer countries at the mercy of powerful countries in bilateral negotiations.
• Rising Inequality: the need for redistribution will be pressing as the pandemic exacerbates the forces of inequality in manifold ways — afflicting the poor.
• Social Distancing Norms: can sow suspicion of others in the community, neighbours distrusting neighbours, community vigilantism and other nations.
• This suspicion has led to paranoia involved in scapegoating domestic minority communities as superspreaders (For E.g. Muslims in India, the case of Jews in medieval plague-ridden European cities).

Opportunities for the Future of Social Democracy

• Diversification of trade outlets: Some American or European jobs in labour-intensive industries lost to China may now go to Vietnam and other south-east Asian countries.
• Encouraging efforts towards social security: Increased awareness in the face of the economic crisis would lead to bridging gaps between formal-informal in terms of common demands like Universal Health Care.

• An overhaul of the public health system, which is broken in countries like India the US

• The rising role of the state: amidst the pandemic has provided an avenue for Social Democrats to challenge the state against the surveillance and repressive power of the state

Conclusion: Social-democratic labour and civil society organizations have to give leadership against the race-to-the-bottom community and nationalist pursuits.