World after COVID-19: democracy VS authoritarianism

Problem setting. The coronavirus pandemic has spread across the planet, not only affecting the health of the population and the world’s medical system but also disrupting the global information space, economy and all other spheres of human life. Both domestic and foreign policies of states are changing. Success in overcoming the pandemic and its economic consequences is affecting security and polarization within societies. The pandemic leads to enhancing public power and strengthening nationalism, the intensification of rivalry between great powers, and strategic disunity. In this context, the paper objective is to consider authoritarian and democratic approaches to solving the problems of the current crisis. Recent research and publications analysis. The general scientific and scientific-journalistic literature has not yet created a generalized work on the socio-economic and political consequences caused by the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some views caused by global crises are noted in the studies of J. Vynokurov, L. Kolinets, O. Nevmerzhytska, A. Petryk, and others. Ukrainian and foreign philosophers, political scientists, publicists A. Baumaster, O. Koval, R. Sushchenko, S. Walt, V. Katasonov, K. Mahbubani, J. Nai, Y. N. Harari expressed their reflections on the future development of the world after the pandemic. The famous American thinker F. Fukuyama notes that after a long crisis, the world will eventually be renewed and democracy will be strengthened.Highlighting previously unsettled parts of the general problem. The history of mankind is inseparable from the accompanying constant crises that have shaken societies and states. The peculiarity of modern crises is their unpredictability and globality. Due to the lack of effective crisis prevention mechanisms, inefficient functioning of international financial institutions, the presence of mass financial speculation and the virtualization of the world economy, favourable conditions are created for the spread and generation of crisis phenomena in the world. So far, there is no generally accepted view of the likely consequences of crises for the world’s economies, and thus unpredictable socio-political changes. Paper main body. The Covid-19 pandemic has become the world’s largest global crisis since the Great Depression. Its depth and scale are enormous. As a result, it is capable of surpassing the Great Recession of 2008 – 2009. Thus, only in the second quarter of 2020, the economy of the Eurozone countries fell by more than 12%. There is a record drop in GDP, world trade is declining. The pandemic is projected to increase poverty, with more than half of those in Africa. The peculiarity of the new crisis is not only that it creates unprecedented uncertainty, but also that it destroys entire sectors of the economy, including tourism, transport and even energy.The Coronavirus pandemic can cause significant changes not only in the economic but also in the political, social and cultural spheres. A protracted epidemic, combined with huge job losses, a protracted recession and a debt burden, could create tensions that will escalate into a political reaction. Nationalism, isolationism, xenophobia and attacks on the liberal world order may intensify. As the COVID-19 crisis spreads, it discredits traditional politics and public institutions, which are perceived by the general public as a systemic failure, and democracy is replaced by populism and the rhetoric of radicalism.Conclusions of the research and prospects for further studies. The crisis of the coronavirus has a significant impact on all spheres of society, causing negative consequences in the economy, health care and socio-political relations. There are growing populism, nationalism and authoritarianism, which increases the likelihood of social and international conflicts. That is why it became topical to defend the opposite concepts of further development of political systems of societies - to join forces to overcome the common threat, international cooperation, exchange of information, support for democratic values.