Abstract

SOBORSKI, Rafal. Taking ideology seriously in the time of plague: insights versus distractions. Acta acad. (Bloemfontein, Online) [online]. 2021, vol.53, n.2, pp.103-121. ISSN 2415-0479.  http://dx.doi.org/10.18820/24150479/aa53i2/6.

This article argues that insights from ideology theory shed valuable light on the political aspects of COVID-19 and help understand and categorise policy responses to it. Much of the debate on the politics of COVID-19 has been dominated by questions concerning populism, but this article contends that this is not a fruitful direction for understanding current developments. The argument advanced here is that populism is a hollow and incoherent ideological category and so does not provide a suitable departure point to explore the ideological dimension of the pandemic. On the other hand, a critical engagement with the dominant ideology of neoliberalism goes a long way to explain different kinds of political fallout from COVID-19. While neoliberalism is unfit for the challenge posed by the virus, identifying the ideological underpinnings of the neoliberal approach may help to grasp its implications and formulate urgently needed alternatives.

Keywords : COVID-19; ideology; populism; neoliberalism.

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