The faces of solidarity

A recent study published in the prestigious American journal PNAS analyzes how companies in the G7 countries have reacted to the health crisis caused by Covid.
The first interesting thing about the article is the approach used to study the systemic impact of the crisis, which is based on the Recoupling Economic and Social Prosperity initiative. The underlying motivation is simple: given the fragmentation social and environmental degradation that has accompanied economic growth in recent decades, it is clear that economic prosperity (as measured by the GDP of nations) can be separated from social prosperity. The first is not an end in itself, but a means to reach the second. In this perspective, the aim of economic and social policies should be to promote social prosperity and to re-couple economic and social prosperity.

The Recoupling Dashboard (see QRcode) offers a simple methodological framework for measuring the economic and social success of nations, and, in the specific case of the study, how countries responded to the Covid pandemic (not only in terms of GDP). According to this approach, social prosperity is based on four pillars: the economy, the state, civil society and the environment. How the health crisis has impacted on these aspects is explained by the performance indicators used by the Recoupling Dashboard 2020, which reveals the divergent experiences of the G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and the United States).

The indicators used are: solidarity, agency, GDP and environmental sustainability.
Solidarity covers the need for social belonging and rootedness in society. According to the authors, it can be inward , that is, towards one's national, religious, ethnic, racial or status groups, or outward , aimed at external, that is, to groups with respect to which their social identity is not defined. The Agency captures self-efficacy, that is, the individual ability to pursue their goals, that is, how much people have the power to influence their own destiny through their own efforts. The measure of material gain is GDP and that of environmental sustainability takes into account various indicators (the environmental performance index, CO₂ emissions and greenhouse gases).

The results show a sharp decline in GDP due to the pandemic for all countries, associated with a corresponding drop in CO₂ emissions. This uniformity stands in stark contrast to the diversity of social responses to the cooperation challenge posed by the coronavirus.

inward solidarity grew in four G7 countries (including Italy) and remained almost constant in the three remaining countries. On the contrary, outward solidarity decreased in four countries, increased in two countries (including Italy) and remained almost constant in the remaining countries. According to the authors, a fall in outward solidarity could hamper voter support for multilateral efforts to eradicate the pandemic around the world. The Italian and Japanese case is interesting: while the economic performance is reduced (consequently improving the environmental one), the overall social performance, that is the two types of solidarity, increases.

Agency has increased in most countries, probably demonstrating a greater sense of empowerment that comes from facing new challenges.
Taking the Italian case, it could therefore be concluded that the effectiveness of restart policies can benefit from the increased social capital of citizens following the crisis: a fact that is certainly encouraging with respect to the transitions that await us.


Perluigi Conzo
NP June / July 2022