Government capacity, societal trust or party preferences: what accounts for the variety of national policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe?

Abstract

European states responded to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 with a variety of public policy measures. In this article we ask what can account for this variation in policy responses, and we identify a number of factors related to institutions, general governance and specific health-sector related capacities, societal trust, government type, and party preferences as possible determinants. Using multivariate regression and survival analysis, we model the speed with which school closures and national lockdowns were imposed. The models suggest a number of significant and often counterintuitive relationships: more centralized countries with lower government effectiveness, freedom and societal trust, but with separate ministries of health and health ministers with medical background acted faster and more decisively. High perceived capacity might have provided false confidence to the governments, resulting in a delayed response to the early stages of the pandemic. Furthermore, more right-wing and authoritarian governments responded faster.

Explaining the intention to uptake COVID-19 vaccination using the behavioral and social drivers of vaccination (BeSD) model

“…It is important for policymakers and administrators to build trust about the vaccine amongst the people to successfully tackle the pandemic and prevent further loss of life. For this, trust has to be studied from all perspectives, especially in the context of the healthcare industry [33] , [34] including trust in the vaccine brand and effectiveness, the health care providers [35] , and the government and healthcare departments [34] , [36] . Existing studies show that intention to take vaccines is highly associated with people’s trust in the government and their perceived vulnerability to the disease [37] .…”

Development of a COVID-19 Web Information Transmission Structure Based on a Quadruple Helix Model: Webometric Network Approach Using Bing

“…Thus, the impact of the first stage of the pandemic was more sensitive in Asia, and the information from various industries was related to responding to this need. However, only some industries in non-Asian regions paid attention in the first stage, and the information source helix did not form, which also led to the slow response to COVID-19 in some regions and the delay in response measures [43]. Since April, the spiral has intensified in non-Asian regions due to the spread of the pandemic to many areas outside Asia, which has raised concern of various industries.…”

The Swedish Covid-19 strategy and voluntary compliance: Failed securitisation or constitutional security management?

“…Early studies of how countries sought to address the dangers presented by have highlighted the specific emergency and crisis responses of individual states. For example, authoritative governments with a high level of risk-aversion that enjoy strong executive power can impose restrictions upon individual mobility and freedom quite quickly when deemed necessary (Toshkov, Yesilkagit, and Carroll 2021). China's lockdown in Wuhan bears witness to the potential effectiveness of authoritative governments in coping with security issues.…”