The COVID-19 pandemic: challenge to the development discourse under the neoliberal economic model

Abstract

The neoliberal capitalist model that rules the world in the 21st century cannot deny the alarming situation of deaths from COVID-19, as well as its inability to respond to the economic impact that this pandemic is generating. Not being in control of the former until now puts control of the latter out of their hands. Free market dynamics are restricted by global epidemics or high-level environmental crises. The development thought from "above" fails to explain the consequences that the global health crisis phenomenon is causing at the economic, social and political level. For this reason, post-development begins to make sense, by questioning the concept of economic growth and its goals, striving to include a worldview as the foundation of a new development model worldwide. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate the need to include new forms of development that contemplate multiple universes.