Global Problem, National Solution: An Evaluation of Global Public Goods during COVID-19

Abstract

Globalist solution proposals for global public goods, which have both non-rivalry and non-excludability properties as well as cross-border externalities, emphasize collective action in the provision of these goods. However, the practice of the COVID-19 pandemic shows that the solution to such a global problem is not so global. This situation necessitates a re-evaluation of the concept of global public goods. The COVID-19 pandemic is a public bad, and efforts to combat the pandemic are an example of a public good. The global consequences of the said global public good also affected other global public goods, and these effects required the determination of priorities in the protection decisions. The policies of governments, caught between economic recession, political crises and health crises, have lagged far behind the globalist solution proposals of the global public goods theory. For this reason, the aim of the study is to determine that although the problem in the COVID-19 pandemic is global, its solution can remain at the national level and to re-evaluate the concept of global public goods within this framework. In the study, after conceptual explanations, first the externality relations between global public goods, and then the search for non-global solutions to the global COVID-19 problem (mask wars between countries, tension in international relations, disinformation processes in order not to take responsibility, the increase in distrust in international organizations, and global inequality created by patenting and pricing of vaccines) are explained.