See the call in PDF form here.
Description of the Issue:
Since the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2007-09 (and later), economic and political liberalism has been in retreat globally (Niblett 2017), an irony since economically freer countries are associated with less severe crises (Bjørnskov 2016). The rise of populist alternatives to mainstream parties, promising radical change and pointing fingers at corrupt elites (Devinney and Hartwell 2020), has infected not only emerging markets but also developed economies. The seeming lack of response to economic decline, with “solutions” rooted in old-fashioned Keynesian policies (Vail 2014) and the promise of cheap money (Rajan 2015), has widened economic inequality, and generated socio-political unrest (Oetzel and Oh 2019).
On top of all of this came the COVID-19 pandemic, unleashed on the world by an authoritarian nation who has been reticent to let investigators access to data regarding the first days of the pandemic and has been a paragon of censorship (Chang et al. 2022). Most importantly, massive prohibitions on economic activity (colloquially called “lockdowns”) and on freedom of movement and speech were embraced by governments in order to fight the disease (Simandan et al. 2022). Such draconian measures were used even by ostensibly liberal democracies, with unlimited duration and the threat of reimposition, generating massive economic uncertainty and turning institutions and their functioning on their heads (Hartwell and Devinney 2021).
This special issue examines the decline in political and economic freedom since the global financial crisis and especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring how authoritarian governance and economics have come back into vogue. Is democracy in retreat? Is the growth of authoritarianism here to stay, and does this wave harken back to earlier increases in authoritarianism (e.g., the inter-war period)? What has happened to the global economy in the wake of China’s naked authoritarian response to the pandemic? Do liberal democracies have their heart in maintaining liberalism, or has a fetish been made of “democracy” to cloak deeper ambitions for power?
Suggested Topics:
In line with Politics & Governance’s policy, we invite submissions of not more than 6,000 words on a variety of topics under this broad theme. Authors are encouraged to submit papers dealing, inter alia, with:
· The failure of political elites to deal with crisis
· Populism and its left-wing policy prescriptions
· Political and economic resilience/institutions as complex systems
· Specific COVID-19 responses and how they have enabled authoritarianism
· Comparative studies of earlier waves of authoritarianism
· The Russian invasion of Ukraine as a consequence of Western weakness
· The role of China in the pandemic and its response
· Economic policies in the post-global financial crisis world
· The revival of industrial policies and their danger for global growth
· Trade protectionism and killing the goose that laid the golden egg
· Electoral reforms in democracies and their effects on freedom
· Specific political actors and their agendas
· Institutional changes and deterioration in developed economies
· Rollback of property rights globally
· Financialization as a consequence of government policy
· Authoritarian regionalism and associations
· Mis- and disinformation and the weaponization of censorship/media freedom in general
· Preferred government narratives and their opposition to reality
· Business and government partnerships
Keywords:
COVID-19; authoritarian; economic freedom; political freedom; democracy; political institutions; China; United States; European Union.
Projected Timeline:
· Deadline for abstracts: 1-15 December 2023
· Deadline for articles: 15-30 April 2024
· Publication: October-December 2024
About the Journal and Open Access Policy
Politics and Governance (ISSN: 2183-2463) is an internationally peer-reviewed open access journal that publishes significant and cutting-edge research drawn from all areas of political science. It is indexed in Web of Science (Social Sciences Citation Index), Scopus and other databases, and has an impact factor of 1.775 and a cite score of 3.7 (2021). https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance.
As P&G is free to read and share, there is an article processing charge for accepted papers to offset production costs (more details here). This cannot be waived and is a regular part of the process with this journal.
REFERENCES
Bjørnskov, C. (2016). Economic freedom and economic crises. European Journal of Political Economy, 45, 11-23.
Chang, K. C., Hobbs, W. R., Roberts, M. E., & Steinert-Threlkeld, Z. C. (2022). COVID-19 increased censorship circumvention and access to sensitive topics in China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(4), e2102818119.
Devinney, T. M., & Hartwell, C. A. (2020). Varieties of populism. Global Strategy Journal, 10(1), 32-66.
Hartwell, C. A., & Devinney, T. (2021). Populism, political risk, and pandemics: The challenges of political leadership for business in a post-COVID world. Journal of World Business, 56(4), 101225.
Niblett, R. (2017). Liberalism in retreat: the demise of a dream. Foreign Affairs, 96, 17.
Oetzel, J., & Oh, C. H. (2019). Melting pot or tribe? Country-level ethnic diversity and its effect on subsidiaries. Journal of International Business Policy, 2(1), 37-61.
Rajan, R. (2015). Competitive monetary easing: is it yesterday once more? Macroeconomics and Finance in Emerging Market Economies, 8(1-2), 5-16.
Simandan, D., Rinner, C., & Capurri, V. (2022). Confronting the rise of authoritarianism during the COVID-19 pandemic should be a priority for critical geographers and social scientists. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 226-242.
Vail, M. I. (2014). Varieties of Liberalism: Keynesian Responses to the Great Recession in France and Germany. Governance, 27(1), 63-85.