Combating COVID-19 under Bolsonaro’s federalism: a case of intergovernmental incoordination

Abstract

Resumo Este artigo analisa como o federalismo brasileiro tem afetado o combate à COVID-19. Tendo por base uma análise histórico-institucional do caso brasileiro, busca-se compreender como o modelo federativo construído pelo governo Bolsonaro influenciou as respostas ao combate da pandemia no país, bem como os resultados do confronto de dois modelos federativos nesse processo. De um lado, o ideário e as estruturas institucionais da Constituição de 1988 com características cooperativas e forte coordenação federal. De outro, o federalismo bolsonarista baseia-se numa visão dualista de relações intergovernamentais, com menor participação da União na redução de desigualdades territoriais e no apoio a governos subnacionais, além da postura centralizadora e hierárquica nas questões de impacto nacional. O estudo mostra que o federalismo bolsonarista aumentou o conflito com governos subnacionais e tem descoordenado políticas públicas de enfrentamento à pandemia. Conclui-se que as crises sanitária e federativa caminham juntas e trazem à tona uma questão chave: a importância da coordenação governamental nas políticas públicas de enfrentamento à pandemia.

The short-term impacts of coronavirus quarantine in São Paulo: The health-economy trade-offs

“…The lack of coordination among state and federal health agencies may have had detrimental impacts on the fight to contain the spread of COVID-19 [ 17 ]. The federal government downplayed the pandemic’s severity, and Brazil lost two health ministers in the first months of the crisis.…”

Disaster management and mitigation instruments used in Brazil in response to the Covid-19 pandemic

“…It is a qualitative method capable of reconstructing a sequence of events still in progress (Beach & Pedersen, 2013). The narrative of circumstances and documents is the resource to analyze an ongoing phenomenon, as it allows to understand the responses to the pandemic, adopted by the federal government (Abrucio et al, 2020).…”

“…According to Abrucio et. al (Abrucio et al, 2020) the reference to the content covered in the press would lose its explanatory capacity without the historical-narrative reference, which presents the trajectory of measures of the federal government, of some world and Brazilian organs, during the pandemic.…”

Governing in a time of global crises: the good, the bad, and the merely normal

“…In federal regimes particularly coordinating activities between the central government and sub-national governments, as well as among the sub-national governments, was crucial for any success of the collective response (Abrucio. et al 2020 ; Peters and Grin, forthcoming). The importance of coordination is especially evident when the principal competence for health policy rested in those sub-national governments (Wolf-Fordham 2020 ).…”