Democracy and Borderline Cases: Covid-19 Emergency

Abstract

Since the primary mode of Covid transmission is person-to-person contact both through respiratory droplets produced by sneezing, breathing, coughing and direct contact with an infecting subject or indirect through hand-mediated transfer of the virus, governments had to limit the contact between individuals to reduce the risk of coronavirus infection. The effect has been a drastic reduction of human interactions, as these were “cut to the bone”. The strict rules the world population has been following, have brought about an urgent debate on the behaviour and regulations that governments have embraced. Fundamental questions about democracy and social theory have been raised by scholars and theorists seeking for a possible answer about why, how and whether the Covid-19 emergency has caused a transformation in a society and, if it is so which are the effects and where are we heading. The paper will be divided in two sections: the former is focused on different perspectives on the impact of Covid-19 and aims to understand whether a western democracy can handle a borderline case like this, or does it have to develop into some other social system. The latter section will focus on what the Covid emergency has been causing in a society and how governments have decided to control and face this situation.