COVID-19 and the Pathologies of Australia’s Regulatory State

Chodor, Tom; Hameiri, Shahar

doi:10.1080/00472336.2022.2106883

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The contemporary Korea retains these institutional foundations for policy implementations despite its transition from authoritarianism to advanced liberal democracy. This development distinguishes it from the global north's regulatory states, where regulatory reforms, decentralization, and a gradual shift from government to governance hallowed out the state's institutional capacity (Chodor and Hameiri, 2022; Jayasuriya, 2001; Jones and Hameiri, 2022). Indeed, Korea, despite becoming an advanced liberal democracy, maintains its tradition of empowering centralized pilot agencies under the leadership of bureaucrats to execute various national tasks.…”

Section: Analytical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the United States also, policymakers were not committed to a specific goal: For example, in June 2021, the White House admitted that the United States would miss President Biden's original goal and that the nation needed a few extra weeks (Villarreal, 2021). Policymakers in other neoliberal regulatory states were also aimless about vaccination targets as they often revised or even dropped their initial vaccination targets and plans, stemming from a lack of state capacity to achieve the task (Chodor and Hameiri, 2022, 15–20). Some observers explained that policymakers’ such actions as “to abandon vaccination goals is to abandon the mantle of leadership” (Gahan and Olsen, 2021).…”

Section: Empirical Illustrations Part 1: Ideational and Institutional...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As Jones and Hameiri (2022: 11) highlighted, no one was authoritatively in charge of neoliberal regulatory states’ pandemic response policy. Neoliberal regulatory states’ approaches regarding vaccine rollout remained the same: Decentralized, fragmented, and overreliance on regional and local administrations (see, Chodor and Hameiri, 2022; DHSC, 2021; Pullano, 2021). By contrast, Korean policymakers adopted a centralized command and control vaccination program led by a coherent health bureaucracy consistent with the developmental state practices.…”

Section: Empirical Illustrations Part 1: Ideational and Institutional...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast, the weak institutional capacity of regulatory states in the global north was found to be a significant factor in explaining the mismanagement of the pandemic. (Kumar, 2021; Chodor and Hameiri, 2022; Jones and Hameiri, 2022). Second , this study's finding contradicts critical political economy scholarships’ claim that the state's reliance on public–private partnerships is ineffective in dealing with the global health crisis and that governments should look beyond an alternative form of governance (Sparke and Williams, 2022; Williams et al, 2021).…”

Section: Implications and Lessons Learned For Neoliberal Regulatory S...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Taking the developmental state seriously: Why South Korea outperformed neoliberal regulatory states in rapid coronavirus disease 2019 vaccinations and saving lives

Kumar

2023

International Area Studies Review

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Coronavirus disease 2019 claimed more than three million lives worldwide in 2020, giving national governments the most urgent task for 2021 to achieve high vaccination rates to save lives. The World Health Organization declared that “vaccines are the most critical tool to end the pandemic and save lives.” In this context, South Korea (hereafter, Korea) achieved a remarkable milestone by outperforming the United Kingdom and the United States in vaccinations rate, where the world's earliest vaccination programs started. Thanks to its high vaccination rate, Korea recorded less than 100 deaths per million populations in 2021 compared to more than 1000 in the United Kingdom and the United States. Why Korea leaped ahead of the United Kingdom and the United States in rapid vaccinations that saved many lives? To answer this question, I first conceptualize contemporary Korea as a developmental state which retained its institutional capacity despite its transition from authoritarianism to liberal democracy, distinguishing it from the UK and the US's neoliberal regulatory states, where reforms hallowed out state capacity. I then advance two core claims. First, Korea surpassed the United Kingdom and the United States in vaccine rollout because of its developmental state-type goal-oriented autonomous policymaking and strong institutional capacity, manifested as Korea's central agency deployed a command and control vaccination program led by a coherent health bureaucracy. Second, the Korean state's strategic intervention in the market and its capacity to foster public–private partnerships to realize national goals boosted its vaccinations. Finally, the paper suggests how neoliberal regulatory states in the global north can learn lessons from the Korean experience in rebuilding state capacity to deal with the future global pandemic.

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Section: Analytical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Empirical Illustrations Part 1: Ideational and Institutional...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Empirical Illustrations Part 1: Ideational and Institutional...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implications and Lessons Learned For Neoliberal Regulatory S...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Taking the developmental state seriously: Why South Korea outperformed neoliberal regulatory states in rapid coronavirus disease 2019 vaccinations and saving lives

Kumar

2023

International Area Studies Review

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show abstract

“…In this context, governments turned to simple, ad-hoc measures like lockdowns and closed borders in order to buy time for their health systems to get up to scratch. Yet the pathologies of the neoliberal state -from its reliance on private providers to lack of planning capacity -meant that such time was often wasted, and health systems continued to tether on the verge of collapse, extending the pandemic (Chodor and Hameiri, 2023;Jones and Hameiri, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%