Opinion | Societies in crisis: coronavirus epidemic underlines the need to refresh the social contract between government and the people

A survey of workers and consumers in 22 advanced economies sheds light on the lack of retirement protection and job security, even as income inequality rises to extreme levels. The social contract promised in an open society, alongside a free market, is broken

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A woman wears a face mask at a market in Hong Kong on January 30. The speed and scale of epidemics, this one and others to come, make it impossible for the state to tackle the crisis alone. Photo: AP

Published: 1:00am, 15 Feb 2020Updated: 1:50am, 15 Feb 2020

The neoliberal order – of which many in Asia, including Hong Kong, are believers – is founded on free markets and an important social contract: that the state and market will take care of citizens. But the coronavirus epidemic has raised doubts about whether such a social contract works as promised.

Eighteenth-century French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau is most associated with the idea of a social contract, in which the individual agrees to submit to the authority of the state in exchange for the state’s protection of his or her natural and legal rights.

With millions of Chinese and other Asians now confining themselves to home because of the outbreak, this is the time to step away from the rat race and think about the meaning of life.

Can a free market that calls for minimal government intervention, deal with an epidemic? And when there is huge disagreement over what to do in a panic, can a fully democratic government deal with a crisis that is unprecedented in recent history?

The debate in the West on whether democracy is failing stems from increasing disillusionment that the neoliberal order has failed to deliver what it promised.