The risk society is the answer to the uncertainty of the future in the modern, open society. Uncertainty is transformed into risks that are to be minimized or even avoided altogether by measuring them. But the risk society is "reflexive", which means that risk avoidance techniques are constantly creating new risks. The risk posed by the Corona pandemic is the rise of the state to the commanding heights of society. After all we have learned from history, this rise - and the associated decline of the liberal economic and social order - is likely to be the ultimate catastrophe of our present.
This article is available in German only.
About the author
Thomas
Mayer
Founding Director of the Institute and former Chief Economist of the Deutsche Bank Group and Head of Deutsche Bank Research. Previously at Goldman Sachs, Salomon Brothers, the International Monetary Fund and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
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