Managing Post-Pandemic Recovery. The normalisation of emergency socio-economic measures in different European [constitutional] landscapes

This article expounds on the findings of European-financed research concerning how different States grappled with the socioeconomic consequences of the pandemic and to what extent one can envisage non-marginal institutional and policy change towards the post-pandemic phase. The article investigates any connection between what the States are promising and the social impact of the COVID-19 crisis, appraising the general orientation of social policy reform in terms of institutional design and ‘philosophical’ inspiration. By the latter, we mean a social rights-based approach and an active social policy approach, also termed social investment. Therefore, rather than only seeing how policies impact the socioeconomic situation, we also detect how the socioeconomic situation impacts the general political response. To this end, the article analyses a set of national jurisdictions against the backdrop of a piece of supranational legislation, such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), intended to bring about essential change. The approach is interdisciplinary, involving legal and sociological analysis, and uses much reliable information to chart specific policy patterns valuable for decision-makers.