Paper short abstract:

I use the developments during the pandemic in Bangladesh to argue that pre-existing political settlements mediate the degree of responsiveness a country's social protection system exhibits when faced with exogenous shocks.

Paper long abstract:

A country regularly beset by devastating natural disasters, Bangladesh is usually lauded for the efficiency of its disaster management and response apparatus. And yet, during the pandemic, the country's social protection system was widely criticised for failing to provide for even the minimal basic needs of the citizens, leading to untold hardship across the board. The most visible face of this hardship was the plight of 4m workers in the country's ready-made garments industry who, in a visceral instantiation of the lives vs. livelihoods debate, were made to return to their workplaces well before lockdown was eased. In this paper, I argue that pre-existing political settlements mediate the degree of responsiveness a country's social protection system exhibits in the face of exogenous shocks, like the pandemic.

The study is based on over sixty in depth qualitative interviews with key stakeholders, weeks of participant observation in key meetings and organisations, as well as analysis of hundreds of internal government documents. First, I find unique ideas that the poor deserve more than the rich means targeting is preferred over universalism in Bangladesh. Second, the relative power of consumers over producers in the rice market means food is preferred over cash transfers. And, third, the machinations of neoliberal global capitalism deliberately and systematically exclude labour from social protection in the country. A combination of these factors created a perfect storm that provides some explanation for the failure of Bangladesh's social protection response to the pandemic.