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In Global Life-Death Struggle, Democracy Changes Course

Jamie Dettmer

   Outside wartime nothing like it as ever been seen before in modern
   Western history. The lockdowns by democratic states with their
   draconian constraints on civil liberties and private enterprise fly in
   the face of an historical progression that's seen the size and roles of
   governments shrunk and individual liberty boosted.

   As governments mobilize resources and coerce people in a life-and-death
   struggle to contain the coronavirus and mitigate its impact, the state
   has been unbound.

   People have been confined indoors, police powers have been expanded,
   data-surveillance increased and businesses shuttered. All with little
   debate.

   The size and scope of the state's role in the economy prompted by the
   coronavirus dwarfs anything mounted to handle the 2008 financial crash.
   Britain, France and other European countries have offered so far loans
   and subsidies worth around 15% of their GDPs. America's stimulus
   package is at around 10% of GDP.

   The U.S. fiscal stimulus package was dubbed by Larry Kudlow, President
   Donald Trump's economic adviser, "the single largest Main Street
   assistance program in the history of the United States."

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