Abstract
This chapter provides a sociological analysis of the dynamic relationship between epidemics and human society in general, and the socio-political effects of CoViD-19 in particular. It first describes the fragility of human civilizations since ancient times due to the disease effects of the unprecedented concentration of crops, people, and livestock together with their attendant pathogens and parasites, which led to epidemics of one kind or another. It then looks at the origin of SARS-CoV-2 in similar circumstances in a wet seafood market in China and the disruption of lives and livelihoods that it caused in almost every country on the globe. Using Habermas’s theory of public sphere and its democratic function, and Nancy Fraser’s idea of ‘transnational’ public sphere, this chapter analyses how the growing weakness of public sphere and its critical democratic function, combined with the limited freedom of speech has resulted in the loss of the best early-warning system a world threatened by epidemics can have. With example of CoViD-19 pandemic and its governance in India and China, this chapter finally discusses the shortcomings in the functioning of a truly democratic society and its (in)ability to deal with such pandemics. It recommends the formation and strengthening of a ‘global public sphere’ beyond the nation state, to not only counter such epidemic threats to human life in the future, but to also build a resilient, just and deeply democratic world community.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
“Cocoliztli” is the Aztec word for pest.
References
Beck U (1992) Risk society: towards a new modernity. Sage, London
Calhoun C (2002) Imagining solidarity: cosmopolitanism, constitutional patriotism, and the public sphere. Publ Cult 14(1):147–171
Diamond J (1997) Guns, germs and steel: the fate of human societies. W.W. Norton & Company, New York
Durant W (1954) Our Oriental heritage. Simon and Schuster, New York
Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) (2020) Editorial. Living with CoViD-19. 55(20). https://www.epw.in/journal/2020/20/editorials/living-covid-19.html. Accessed 22 May 2020
Fraser N (2014) Transnationalizing the public sphere: on the legitimacy and efficacy of public opinion in a post-Westphalian world. In: Nash K (ed) Transnationalizing the public sphere. Polity Press, Cambridge
Gates B (2019) Coronavirus explained. 2020. ‘The Pandemic’. Season-1, episode-1. Netflix Series
Habermas J (1991) The structural transformation of the public sphere: an inquiry into a category of Bourgeois Society (trans: Burger T, Lawrence F). MIT Press, Cambridge
Habermas J (2001) Why Europe needs a constitution. New Left Rev 11:5–6
Habermas J (2009) Europe: the faltering project. Polity, Cambridge
Harper K (2017) The fate of Rome: climate, disease, and the end of an empire. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Huang C, Wang Y, Li W et al (2020) Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. Lancet 395:497–506
Jester B et al (2018) Readiness for responding to a severe pandemic 100 years after 1918. Am J Epidemiol 187(12):2596–2602
Kelly AH, Keck F, Lynteris C (2019) The anthropology of epidemics. Routledge, London
Kohn GC (ed) (2008) Encyclopedia of plague and pestilence: from ancient times to the present. Facts-on-File Publishing, New York
Linklater A (2007) Public spheres and civilizing processes. Theory Cult Soc 24(4):31–37
Linklater A (2010) Moral progress and world history: ethics and global interconnectedness. In: Van Hooft S, Vandekerckhove W (eds) Questioning cosmopolitanism. Springer, New York
Littman RJ (2009) The plague of Athens: epidemiology and paleopathology. Mount Sinai School Med 76:456–467
Nash K (ed) (2014) Transnationalizing the public sphere. Polity Press, Cambridge
Nussbaum MC (1992) Human functioning and social justice: in defense of Aristotelian essentialism. Polit Theory 20(2):202–246
Rosen W (2007) Justinian’s flea: plague, empire and the birth of Europe. Viking Books, New York
Rutherford P (2000) Endless propaganda: the advertising of public goods. University of Toronto Press, Toronto
Scott J (2017) Against the grain: a deep history of the earliest states. Yale University Press, London
Stirk PMR (1992) Max Horkheimer—a new interpretation. Barnes and Noble Books, Lanham
Tumpey TM, Baster CF, Aguilar PV et al (2005) Characterization of the reconstructed 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic virus. Science 310(5745):77–80
Wang LF, Cowled C (eds) (2015) Bats and viruses: a new frontier of emerging infectious diseases. Wiley Blackwell, New Jersey
WHO (2019) A world at risk—annual report on global preparedness for health emergencies. Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, Geneva
Wu F, Zhao S, Yu B et al (2020) A new coronavirus associated with human respiratory disease in China. Nature 579(7798):265–269
Websites
Billaud J (2020) Inventing a breathing planet after CoViD-19. https://graduateinstitute.ch/coronavirus-information-our-community-and-visitors/what-our-professors-have-say. Accessed 14 May 2020
Cohen J (2020) Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/wuhan-seafood-market-may-not-be-source-novel-virus-spreading-globally#. Accessed 13 May 2020
Coronavirus Explained (2020) The Pandemic. Season-1, episode-1. Netflix Series
Hutt R (2016) Why do civilizations collapse? https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/03/why-do-civilizations-collapse/. Accessed 10 May 2020
Jarus O (2015) Gruesome find: 100 bodies stuffed into ancient house. https://www.livescience.com/51662-100-bodies-found-prehistoric-house.html. Accessed 11 May 2020
Jarus O (2020) 20 of the worst epidemics and pandemics in history. https://www.livescience.com/worst-epidemics-and-pandemics-in-history.html. Accessed 11 May 2020
Jordan D, Tumpey T, Jester B (2019) The deadliest flu: the complete story of the discovery and reconstruction of the 1918 pandemic virus. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/reconstruction-1918-virus.html. Accessed 12 May 2020
Kruszelnicki KS (2007) Black death. http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/09/13/2031252.htm?site=science/greatestmomentsi. Accessed 12 May 2020
The Epoch Times (2020) Tracking down the origins of Wuhan coronavirus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bXWGxhd7ic. Accessed 13 May 2020
Yu V (2020) The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/08/if-china-valued-free-speech-there-would-be-no-coronavirus-crisis
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mishra, N. (2020). Global Governance of COVID-19: Decline of Public Sphere and Transnational Democracy. In: Goyal, M.K., Gupta, A.K. (eds) Integrated Risk of Pandemic: Covid-19 Impacts, Resilience and Recommendations. Disaster Resilience and Green Growth. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7679-9_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7679-9_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-7678-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-7679-9
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)