Webinar on “Pandemics and Political Development: The Electoral Legacy of the Black Death in Germany” by Dr. Jan P. Vogler, post-doctoral research fellow in the political economy of good government at the University of Virginia's, USA

The Economic Club, Department of Data Science hosted yet another webinar on the topic “Pandemics and Political Development: The Electoral Legacy of the Black Death in Germany” by Dr. Jan P. Vogler. The webinar conducted on 27th August 2020 highlighted major aspects of the ongoing pandemic and its relation with the pertaining black deaths in Germany.

Dr. Jan P. Vogler has studied political science at the Free University of Berlin and during his undergraduate studies, he spent one year at the University of California, Berkeley, focusing on political science and economics. He further pursued his master’s degree in International relations with an emphasis on research methods at the London School of Economics.  Specialising in political economy and political methodology, he was aPhD student at Duke University. His Dissertation entitled The Political Economy of Public Bureaucracy: The Emergence of Modern Administrative Organization's explains cross-national and cross-regional variation in formal and informal bureaucratic institutions. He currently holds the position of a post-doctoral research fellow in the political economy of good government at the University of Virginia's Department of Politics. In addition, he has several research projects pertaining to different topics and various achievements thereafter.

Dr. Vogler very specifically highlighted the effects of the current pandemic – Covid 19 – on the developed and developing nations. “United States of America though developed is suffering from the pandemic very brutally and actually much worse than other countries”, pointed out Dr. Vogler. He further added that what started months ago has eventually led to a severe world crisis affecting various macro and micro elements of the economy.

No doubt, the effects of Covid-19 are appalling and cruel which led to stalling of varied economies; it has led to major job losses of millions of people. He is of the view that if pandemic would not have occurred states the economy could have portrayed a complete different picture. The pandemic caused shutting down of countries and halt in major economic activities.

The article Pandemics and Political Development: The Electoral Legacy of the Black Death in Germany by Dr. Vogler and Dr. Daniel Gingerich answers the question, “Do pandemics have lasting consequences for political behaviour?” He further highlighted yet another pandemic of Black Death, the mostly deadly pandemic of the last millennium. Long-term consequences of Black Death has led to loss of labour causing labour shocks and restructuring socio economic relations. He also showed the attendees different graphs and charts relating to relating to levels of lead in the atmosphere in Europe over last 200 years. The most notable factor being Black Death pandemic lead to massive drop of lead in the air!

His mechanisms behind the theory are quite fascinating and interesting. He made us aware of the fact that if because of the labour shocks, labour reduces; elites will compete for best labourers and then we shall see the emergence of an incipient labour market. This will lead to loss of elite power leading to greater equality in landholding and thereafter. He clearly depicted two scenarios that could occur and which are exactly opposite to each other. Dr. Vogler very well highlighted the reason they selected Germany to study the intensity of Black Deaths and its history and features.

Attendees from different institutions and departments joined the webinar. Symbiosis students as well as great personalities from the background of economics were a part of this session. The attendees were also given a chance to pose different questions to the guest speaker. Attendees posed numerous questions to Dr. Vogler relating to poverty, inequality and behavioural changes.

Overall, the webinar was a huge success with efficient co-ordination of Rev. Dr. Jossy George, the director of Christ (Deemed to be University), Lavasa. The webinar was further successfully co-ordinated by Prof. Kedar Vishnu and Department of Data science.