Comparative Federalism and Covid-19

Abstract

This comprehensive scholarly book on comparative federalism and the Covid-19 pandemic is written by some of the world's leading federal scholars and national experts.The Covid-19 pandemic presented an unprecedented emergency for countries worldwide, including all those with a federal or hybrid-federal system of government, which account for more than 40 per cent of the world's population. With case studies from 19 federal countries, this book explores the core elements of federalism that came to the fore in combatting the pandemic: the division of responsibilities (disaster management, health care, social welfare, and education), the need for centralisation, and intergovernmental relations and cooperation. As the pandemic struck federal countries at roughly the same time, it provided a unique opportunity for comparative research on the question of how the various federal systems responded. The authors adopt a multidisciplinary approach to question whether federalism has been a help or a hindrance in tackling the pandemic. The value of the book lies in understanding how the Covid-19 pandemic affected federal dynamics and how it may have changed them, as well as providing useful lessons for how to combat such pandemics in federal countries in the future. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of politics and international relations, comparative federalism, health care, and disaster management.

Centralizing and decentralizing governance in the COVID-19 pandemic: The politics of credit and blame

“…Third, not all federations are equally resistant to centralization. Another study of COVID-19 in European federations found, in our reading, that while there was centralization and a focus on the head of government everywhere, Belgium and Germany were both more resistant to central coordination and decentralized more quickly; our tables suggest the same [63] .…”

Why do democracies respond differently to COVID-19? A comparison of the United States and South Korea

“…However, COVID-19 poses unprecedented challenges to democratic governance (3,4). Different democracies respond to the crisis differently (5)(6)(7). In some democracies, their information advantage has not prevented epidemic outbreaks.…”

“…For example, the federal system is more conducive to solving the challenges of diverse regions, and the unitary governance system is conducive to reducing intergovernmental conflicts (17). Different federal systems also affect different crisis management in democratic countries (7). A more centralized democracy with an independent healthcare sector can respond to crises more quickly (13).…”

La coordinación institucional durante la pandemia de COVID-19: el caso de las residencias de personas mayores en España

“…La rápida propagación de la COVID-19 supuso un gran reto para los Gobiernos de todo el mundo. En el caso de los países con sistemas compuestos o territorialmente complejos, la pandemia ha planteado desafíos especiales, ya que el control de la propagación del virus y la gestión de los recursos ha requerido de la coordinación entre Gobiernos y sectores de política pública (véase OCDE, 2020;Liu et al, 2021;Steytler, 2022;Chattopadhyay et al, 2022). Además, la pandemia ha puesto en jaque la fragmentación de los sistemas sociosanitarios de muchos países.…”