Donnerstag, 28.03.2024 12:42 Uhr

Greater solidarity through practical action

Verantwortlicher Autor: Carlo Marino Rome, 16.06.2021, 18:47 Uhr
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Rome [ENA] The aftershocks of the pandemic threaten to reorder almost every aspect of western economies and societies. The immediate task is to restore public confidence in the state by managing the disease effectively through vaccine roll-out and smart public health strategies. Yet the fundamental task is to address what the world and years ahead should look like in the aftermath of the pandemic.

How can governments shape the 2020s as a decade of progress, defining a political settlement with citizens anchored in social and global justice? It is difficult to capture the far-reaching implications of the pandemic for the way people live and work across Italy, for example. The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is having a profound impact, with widespread implications for social cohesion. Particular sectors have seen massive job losses, workers have faced reduced working hours or have been furloughed, others have faced redundancies, while still more have continued to carry out essential work in difficult circumstances.

To mitigate the impact of the pandemic, the european Union has introduced a range of measures. Furthermore, there has been a huge increase in the take-up of telework and other e-services. At this juncture, however, it remains impossible to predict the long-term impact of this crisis on citizens and their families . In Italy, never as at this moment there is the necessity for a stable, credible and authoritative government. In a dramatic situation, comparable to the immediate postwar period, the government in the coming weeks has to maintain strict vigilance on the containment of infections and ensure an adequate number of vaccinations as quickly as possible.

But above all it has to define and launch a national reconstruction plan, which will allow Italy to access the funds of the Next Generation EU. The accuracy of this plan remains the main test of the country's ability to overcome the crisis, to abandon the logic of subsidies and bonuses (which have also proved necessary to cushion the social impact of the pandemic), to plan the future based on a strategic vision, and knowing how to spend European funds generously made available for Italy. Till today a multitude of unqualified high executives politically appointed during the years created a stifling red tape which has prevented Italy from gaining access to funding for projects relating to employment, social affairs and social inclusion.

Italy used only a small part of the European Structural Investment Funds and mostly squandered EU aid. The public administration in Italy rarely has the right man at the right place.The financing of social and territorial cohesion across Italy could be another difficult task because of the phantom all over the country of organized crime which could try to get the EU funds without the allocation in a just way.People and institutions across the globe are living through a defining moment. Crises are rare moments when windows of opportunity for radical change open up. Ten years ago, it was hoped the West was at a turning point, ushering in a decade of progressive reform. Despite that, political populism was ascendant, fuelling paralysis

and polarisation. Yet COVID-19 has created a unique receptivity to social and economic innovation across the landscape of public policy. Like the former American President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, governments ought to pursue “bold, persistent experimentation” initiating radical economic and social reforms that build bridges to, and confidence in the future. There are three key tasks if this is to be a defining decade in order to prepare western societies for change by forging a new social covenant. Shaping new institutions and investing in capacities at all levels of governance to ensure the ample supply of high-quality public goods. Tackling inequalities and polarisation while addressing the long-term threat of climate

change. Sustaining and reinvigorating new forms of global international coordination by challenging antidemocratic values and human rights violations perpetrated by authoritarian states. It is widely assumed the pandemic will transform the role of the state. Governments have assumed new responsibilities. The state’s purpose has been steadily transformed. About 40 years of relentless assault on the efficacy and legitimacy of the state have passed. In the neoliberal era, the state was cut back to maximise the scope of individualism and expand markets. Western societies have paid a high price: privatisation and the negative effects of globalisation were felt hardest by the most vulnerable in society.

COVID-19 has served as a reminder that government is a prevailing force for good in societies. At the same time, confidence in the state cannot be taken for granted. There are winners and losers from the distribution of emergency government support, alongside deep gaps between insiders and outsiders in labour markets and elsewhere. Becoming the de facto lender and employer of last resort puts states under unparalleled fiscal pressure. In many countries, like Italy, public deficits and debt have been soaring. The COVID-19 crisis underlines the challenges of governance. New public systems will be required to deal effectively with future risks from pandemics to climate change.

Dealing with the long-term imperative of reducing CO2 emissions will require mammoth investment in physical and social infrastructure. Governments need to develop capacities to anticipate problems, preventing crises from becoming acute, so underlining the critical role of preventative public policy. There is a crucial question of how to distribute power effectively: states, like Italy, with greater decentralisation not always get an advantage through a multilevel governance.

The European Union appears to have struggled at key points in the crisis, but it plays a decisive role in delivering the functions that the national governments cannot. Most importantly of all, citizens and communities need to be engaged in the effective pursuit of shared goals. There’s a prvailing need to harness the new energies that are animating civil society at the local level to achieve greater solidarity through practical action.

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