Chapter 3: Finance, Governance and Sovereignty After COVID-19: A Normative Argument for the Need to Democratise Global Finance

Voting power in crediting organisations plays a huge role in determining a country's fiscal power and access to capital, determining who has power and access to capital when it comes to crisis management. In this chapter, I explore the impact it played during the COVID-19 pandemic to highlight the need to democratize global capital when it comes to global crisis management. Parallels will be drawn between the pandemic and the climate emergency to demonstrate how the democratic deficit in global capital translates to disastrous policymaking in the medium and long term for all parties. In response to this, I argue for the democratisation of global capital and highlight how the New Development Bank can provide the necessary force for this essential shift. Pre-empting the common antagonism regarding pooling national sovereignty to supernational organisations and richer countries unilaterally surrendering their privileged position, I will also highlight how continued poor crisis management threatens all nations' national sovereignty in the long-term, given the existential threats of the climate emergency and future pandemics.