UCSB Professor Jan Nederveen Pieterse sits at his home in Goleta on Saturday.
An efficient response to a global pandemic is not directly tied to a nation’s wealth, asserts Dr. Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Professor of global studies and sociology at UCSB, in a recent paper he published in ProtoSociology: An International Journal and Interdisciplinary Project.
“A high concentration of wealth doesn’t bode well for public services and public health,” says Dr. Pieterse in his article.
Essentially, this means that “the high concentration of wealth means a lot of wealth goes to private services rather than to public health, and this is a public health crisis,” Dr. Pieterse told the News-Press.
Dr. Pieterse concludes that low death rates and high vaccine percentage are found in countries that have three key factors. These three key factors are knowledge, state capability and social cooperation.
Understanding how Dr. Pieterse defines these terms is essential for understanding his position. According to Dr. Pieterse:
– Knowledge “ refers to not only a nation’s collective scientific or expert knowledge, but also to social experience with infectious disease.”
– State capability “refers to a country being ‘prepared, ready, acting swiftly and decisively.’”
– Social cooperation “is a region’s ability to come together cohesively in a time of crisis.”
“State capability is the ability to make use of resources in a timely decision making manner. You can be fast and well organized as a state. Does the state have a credible track record? States in Eastern Europe do not have a high track record. In the case of the U.S., knowledge and state capability are not well aligned due to the current administration,” said Dr. Pieterse.
In his paper, Dr. Pieterse asserts: “Market economies are the crystallization of institutional development over long periods. So they reflect history, geography, culture. They come together to help us understand how economies and economic behavior is organized.”
Dr. Pieterse identifies four types of market economies: ‘coordinated-market economies’ such as Denmark, Germany and Canada; developmental state-led market economies such a Cuba or Vietnam; liberal market economies such as the U.S., UK and Chile; and right-wing populist leaders such as Brazil and India.
The former two types of economies tend to have the best combination of variables in responding to a global pandemic, while the latter two tend to have the worst combination.
Dr. Pieterse concludes by asserting that there is little hope for change.
“Countries that do not need the lessons will learn from this pandemic. Countries that do need the lessons will not … Change is very limited because of past dependence. Institutions work in a certain pattern. Corporations have the loudest voice, information that is not convenient is mentioned, but learning from it requires repetition. There is a chance for change, but liberal market economies will take a long time to change,” said Dr. Piertese.
You can read the full article at https://www.news.ucsb.edu/2022/020548/wealth-not-health.
email: kzehnder@newspress.com
