Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

Social trust and government responses to Covid-19

Sevasti Chatzopoulou 4th May 2020

How governments have addressed the pandemic has reflected different levels of social trust—which will have consequences for its aftermath.

social trust, social capital
Sevasti Chatzopoulou

Since the beginning of March, governments around the world have responded differently to the Covid-19 pandemic. Initial responses could not be based on well-founded, objective science and medical tests but rather on political decisions after consultations with experts from various disciplines.

Some prioritised the economy. Others concentrated on the ability of the health system to cope with patients flocking into intensive care and/or the high risk of deaths.

In the meantime, funding for research on a new vaccine, and the social and economic implications of the pandemic, has massively expanded. Yet, as the crisis unfolds by the day, combined with a high degree of uncertainty, nobody can yet securely affirm which has been the right reaction among the diverse national approaches.

Different relationships

Indicatively, in Greece the government’s measures have been particularly stringent—a complete lockdown of schools, cafes, restaurants and shops, strictly monitored by the police and with the borders closed. Along similar lines, the Danish government took a rigorous stance—initially a public-sector lockdown, followed by cafes, restaurants and shops, also combined with closure of the borders. Denmark however monitored more moderately, relying on social collaboration. In Sweden, the measures were much looser and compliance was delegated to the individual.


Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content. We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Sign up here

These divergent responses were manifestations of different national relationships between the state and civil society. In turn, these reflected different levels of social trust and hence accepted degrees of individual and social responsibility.

In Greece, the government pursued oversight through police patrols, controlling individual movement with the use of technology and applying sanctions such as fines. In Denmark, on the other hand, the discourse emerging during the lockdown was of ‘we do this together’, which required high co-ordination but stimulated mutual responsibility and attributed a very active role to civil society. In Sweden, meanwhile, there was some confusion, characterised by conflicting views among experts and in the wider society as to the correctness of the approach adopted.

‘Social capital’

Drawing on the literature on ‘social capital’, we can anticipate the implications of these responses for state-society relations when the crisis is over and such measures are no longer necessary. Social capital is a combination of trust created among persons and reciprocity established through network relations. It constitutes a significant asset for individuals, societies and their governments, especially during crises such as the pandemic.   

Since March 11th, the Danish government has exhibited strong co-ordination among the units related to the management of the Covid-19 crisis. Communication and interaction with society has also been co-ordinated, including the prime minister, the minister of health, the director of the State Serum Institute (which combats and prevents infectious diseases) and the leadership of the police. Being all present, they have conveyed clear messages, stimulated dialogue and engendered a community feeling (fælleskab)—encouraging collaboration with, and active involvement by, civil society.

This interaction ensured compliance, as intended, in the implementation of the government’s measures, notably the lockdown and social distancing. While allowing for co-ordinated responses in times of crises, however, high social trust—characteristic of the Nordic region—can be ‘misused’ and empower the centralisation of governments. Instead of a lockdown, Sweden provided guidelines and relied on individuals’ social responsibility.

Micromanaging

At the other corner of the continent, simultaneously with Denmark, the Greek government introduced a police-controlled lockdown, activating the governing machinery, using extensive information-technology resources, closely monitoring social distancing (such as by micromanaging social mobility), limiting outdoors access and enforcing compliance through economic penalties.

Communication has been systematic and regular, conducted by the leading medical figure responsible, Sotiris Tsiodras, and the deputy minister for civil protection and crisis management. Indeed, it has been particularly personalised: everybody feels ‘acquainted’ with Dr Tsiodras.

This approach demonstrates positive results, in terms of low mortality and relieving the healthcare system, and this has been celebrated extensively via ‘social media’. Yet while it also indicates a degree of co-ordination and societal involvement, the latter is passive, paternalistic and non-collaborative. Being adversarial, this type of management requires increased use of administrative resources and raises concerns about the protection of private data.


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

Consequently, ‘big government’ becomes bigger and if potentially effective less efficient, through extensive use of resources. Besides, by not actively putting civil society on the agenda, this approach impedes recognition of ‘the value of reciprocity’, which, even amid social distancing, can ensure results based on social trust. The society remains immature and uncritical, expecting the government to take extensive responsibility for society’s needs, even by force.

Society praises the government for taking control, when things work. But the moment things go wrong, it considers it legitimate to criticise government decisions, since it has been absent from their creation or not included actively in their implementation—often leading to conspiracy theories. And legitimising police control violates basic principles of democracy and protection of privacy, encouraging authoritarian regimes in the future.

Path-dependent

Social capital and trust do not emerge overnight. They are embedded ‘in social organisation anchored in historical and cultural experiences’ and require the necessary political institutional setting and rules. Their development is time-contingent and thus path-dependent, requiring resources as well as conscious and systematic efforts by various agents of change. Where these exist, they enable a society not only to get through a crisis but also to develop learning processes for the day after.

Conversely, societies which lack social trust and capital and are under a closely monitored, top-down, crisis-management approach most probably will miss an opportunity to establish and maintain trusting relationships and invest in social networks. The society will remain confused, lost in a process of searching for ‘guidance’ by the state.

Hopefully, the pandemic provides a new window of opportunity to establish the deeply-rooted, co-operative values and norms which can lead to social trust. This is a necessary form of capital—whose absence showed during the eurozone crisis—especially because the day after the pandemic will be even more challenging.

Sevasti Chatzopoulou

Sevasti Chatzopoulou is an associate professor in the Department of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde University, Denmark. Her research focuses on EU politics, regulatory policy and social movements from a comparative perspective.

You are here: Home / Politics / Social trust and government responses to Covid-19

Most Popular Posts

Russian soldiers' mothers,war,Ukraine The Ukraine war and Russian soldiers’ mothersJennifer Mathers and Natasha Danilova
IGU,documents,International Gas Union,lobby,lobbying,sustainable finance taxonomy,green gas,EU,COP ‘Gaslighting’ Europe on fossil fuelsFaye Holder
Schengen,Fortress Europe,Romania,Bulgaria Romania and Bulgaria stuck in EU’s second tierMagdalena Ulceluse
income inequality,inequality,Gini,1 per cent,elephant chart,elephant Global income inequality: time to revise the elephantBranko Milanovic
Orbán,Hungary,Russia,Putin,sanctions,European Union,EU,European Parliament,commission,funds,funding Time to confront Europe’s rogue state—HungaryStephen Pogány

Most Recent Posts

reality check,EU foreign policy,Russia Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—a reality check for the EUHeidi Mauer, Richard Whitman and Nicholas Wright
permanent EU investment fund,Recovery and Resilience Facility,public investment,RRF Towards a permanent EU investment fundPhilipp Heimberger and Andreas Lichtenberger
sustainability,SDGs,Finland Embedding sustainability in a government programmeJohanna Juselius
social dialogue,social partners Social dialogue must be at the heart of Europe’s futureClaes-Mikael Ståhl
Jacinda Ardern,women,leadership,New Zealand What it means when Jacinda Ardern calls timePeter Davis

Other Social Europe Publications

front cover scaled Towards a social-democratic century?
Cover e1655225066994 National recovery and resilience plans
Untitled design The transatlantic relationship
Women Corona e1631700896969 500 Women and the coronavirus crisis
sere12 1 RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

The winter issue of the Progressive Post magazine from FEPS is out!

The sequence of recent catastrophes has thrust new words into our vocabulary—'polycrisis', for example, even 'permacrisis'. These challenges have multiple origins, reinforce each other and cannot be tackled individually. But could they also be opportunities for the EU?

This issue offers compelling analyses on the European health union, multilateralism and international co-operation, the state of the union, political alternatives to the narrative imposed by the right and much more!


DOWNLOAD HERE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

The macroeconomic effects of re-applying the EU fiscal rules

Against the background of the European Commission's reform plans for the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), this policy brief uses the macroeconometric multi-country model NiGEM to simulate the macroeconomic implications of the most relevant reform options from 2024 onwards. Next to a return to the existing and unreformed rules, the most prominent options include an expenditure rule linked to a debt anchor.

Our results for the euro area and its four biggest economies—France, Italy, Germany and Spain—indicate that returning to the rules of the SGP would lead to severe cuts in public spending, particularly if the SGP rules were interpreted as in the past. A more flexible interpretation would only somewhat ease the fiscal-adjustment burden. An expenditure rule along the lines of the European Fiscal Board would, however, not necessarily alleviate that burden in and of itself.

Our simulations show great care must be taken to specify the expenditure rule, such that fiscal consolidation is achieved in a growth-friendly way. Raising the debt ceiling to 90 per cent of gross domestic product and applying less demanding fiscal adjustments, as proposed by the IMK, would go a long way.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ILO advertisement

Global Wage Report 2022-23: The impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power

The International Labour Organization's Global Wage Report is a key reference on wages and wage inequality for the academic community and policy-makers around the world.

This eighth edition of the report, The Impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power, examines the evolution of real wages, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region. The report includes evidence on how wages have evolved through the COVID-19 crisis as well as how the current inflationary context is biting into real wage growth in most regions of the world. The report shows that for the first time in the 21st century real wage growth has fallen to negative values while, at the same time, the gap between real productivity growth and real wage growth continues to widen.

The report analysis the evolution of the real total wage bill from 2019 to 2022 to show how its different components—employment, nominal wages and inflation—have changed during the COVID-19 crisis and, more recently, during the cost-of-living crisis. The decomposition of the total wage bill, and its evolution, is shown for all wage employees and distinguishes between women and men. The report also looks at changes in wage inequality and the gender pay gap to reveal how COVID-19 may have contributed to increasing income inequality in different regions of the world. Together, the empirical evidence in the report becomes the backbone of a policy discussion that could play a key role in a human-centred recovery from the different ongoing crises.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ETUI advertisement

The EU recovery strategy: a blueprint for a more Social Europe or a house of cards?

This new ETUI paper explores the European Union recovery strategy, with a focus on its potentially transformative aspects vis-à-vis European integration and its implications for the social dimension of the EU’s socio-economic governance. In particular, it reflects on whether the agreed measures provide sufficient safeguards against the spectre of austerity and whether these constitute steps away from treating social and labour policies as mere ‘variables’ of economic growth.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound webinar: Making telework work for everyone

Since 2020 more European workers and managers have enjoyed greater flexibility and autonomy in work and are reporting their preference for hybrid working. Also driven by technological developments and structural changes in employment, organisations are now integrating telework more permanently into their workplace.

To reflect on these shifts, on 6 December Eurofound researchers Oscar Vargas and John Hurley explored the challenges and opportunities of the surge in telework, as well as the overall growth of telework and teleworkable jobs in the EU and what this means for workers, managers, companies and policymakers.


WATCH THE WEBINAR HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube