ABSTRACT

This discussion piece examines the role that New Zealand played in the global media narrative about Covid-19 responses. The New Zealand Government’s response in general, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s leadership in particular, came to stand as an example of functional governance to a world experiencing the accelerating fragmentation of Western neo-liberal geo-political economy. The ‘spectacle of competence’ that has characterized Ardern’s leadership is bound up in a pre-existing set of political fault lines that the pandemic has served to amplify. New Zealand’s geo-political cultural position, and the competence (both spectacular and actual) that its leadership has come to represent reveal something of the fracture of political economy of the global North and West, not least because the construction of New Zealand as representing a successful ‘Western’ response is geographically, economically and culturally inaccurate. Contrasting the New Zealand government’s pandemic response to the failed responses of Western models of governance, this piece argues that Jacinda Ardern’s leadership is important, not because it represents an example of Western success but rather because it represents a departure from the deadly consequences of neo-liberal norms.

摘要

这篇讨论文章探讨了新西兰在有关Covid-19回应的全球媒体叙述中所扮演的角色。新西兰政府的总体反应，特别是贾辛达·阿登总理的领导，已成为世界上西方新自由主义地缘政治经济日益碎片化的世界的职能治理的典范。代表阿登领导层的“能力奇观”被大流行病放大的一系列先前存在的政治断层线所束缚。新西兰的地缘政治文化地位以及其领导层所代表的能力（既壮观又实际）揭示了全球北方和西方政治经济的破裂，尤其是因为将新西兰建设为代表成功的“西方”对策的地区，地理和经济上以及文化上都是不正确的。与新西兰政府对西方治理模式的失败回应的大流行反应相反，这篇文章认为雅辛达·阿登（Jacinda Ardern）的领导地位很重要，不是因为它代表了西方成功的典范，而是因为它摆脱了新政府的致命后果。自由的规范。