Capitalism and COVID-19: Crisis at the Crossroads

Abstract Existential threats, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have historically engendered intellectual paradigm shifts, and even systemic transformations in the economy and polity. This paper focuses on two inter-related phenomena: rising economic inequality and the diminution of liberal democracy, a feature common to both developed and developing countries set in the context of a ubiquitous and globalized capitalism. In the post-pandemic world, we need to harness the positive dimensions of the powerful capitalist system to lower inequality and build a newer world akin to an earlier golden age of capitalism.