The current coronavirus crisis has affected most countries in the world. Many of them have reacted with strict social distancing measures, including curfews, stricter police controls and more executive decision-making. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
However,\na pandemic such as the spread of COVID-19 raises interesting questions about\nthe state\u2019s ability and structures in times of crises. This is particularly\nrelevant for federal and decentralised states, in which the central government\nhas to work together with regional governments, as they retain important\ncompetences in the areas of health care, education, and also in some cases\ncalling for a state of emergency and imposing curfews. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good\nexample of the need for coordination and the power of lower levels of\ngovernment can be found in Germany and the UK. In Germany, the administrative\nfederal system gives the L\u00e4nder a lot of autonomy in areas such as implementing\nsocial distancing measures and curfews. What is more, in key policy fields such\nas education, the L\u00e4nder retain autonomy, this is why different L\u00e4nder closed\ntheir schools at different times across Germany. While Angela Merkel has\nattempted to demonstrate leadership in this time of national and global crisis,\nher powers, and the powers of the German government as a whole are rather\nlimited, and coordination between the 16 L\u00e4nder and the national government is\nkey. That is why Markus S\u00f6der, the Minister President of Bavaria has also\nmanaged to establish himself as a leading crisis manager. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Likewise,\nwhile the UK government acted later than many other governments in Europe, it\ntoo has to work with governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as\nthey have substantial devolved powers in the areas of health care, education\nand social care. Initially, Scotland, in coordination with Wales took the lead,\nand the governments in Edinburgh and Cardiff were the first to agree on school\nclosures before the UK government decided to close all schools in England as\nwell, and Northern Ireland followed. More recently, there is evidence for greater\ncoordination between the UK government and the devolved governments, and joint\nactions have been taken for example when implementing key decisions in relation\nto the National Health Service (NHS). This is even more interesting, because\nforums of coordination and the political willingness to work together have been\nlacking in the UK, not least as a result of the Brexit referendum and the\nfall-out from the negotiations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other\ncountries with decentralised systems have taken different routes. Spain, the\nsecond most affected country in Europe after Italy, has declared a state of\nemergency, meaning crisis management is coordinated and implemented by the\ncentral government in Madrid. For example, under the current state of emergency\nall regional and local policy forces are now under the control of the central\nMinistry of the Interior. This is particularly remarkable, because of existing\ntensions between Catalonia and the central government, in the wake of the 2017\nunilateral referendum and declaration of independence of Catalonia, and also\nbecause Catalonia is now the second most affected area within Spain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Likewise,\ndespite existing federal structures, crisis management in Austria has been\ndominated by the central government under the leadership of Sebastian Kurz. He\nhas become the face of a crisis manager and has taken drastic decisions\nincluding curfews, suspension of school education and restrictions to major\nfundamental rights. Austria\u2019s federal system is highly centralised, and the\nConstitution foresees a strong role for the central government even in times\nwithout a global pandemic. The current crisis highlights once more the weakness\nof federal structures and autonomy for the L\u00e4nder in Austrian politics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
An interesting example to examine further is the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is one of the most decentralised countries in the world, and health care is a responsibility of the entities, rather than of the national government. However, in the wake of increased cases of COVID-19 across the country, there have been instances of political disagreement and a lack of proper enforcement of social distancing. In fact, many of the weaknesses of the state as a whole, and of the entities are displayed very openly during this crisis \u2013 the lack of proper healthcare provisions, including ventilators, the inability of political actors to take joint and decisive actions in times of crisis, and the unwillingness of ethnic elites to look beyond ethnicity and group belonging and find compromises for joint action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The current global pandemic is a challenge for all states. First, it raises important questions about the capabilities of health care systems in even the most advanced Western democracies. Yet, the current crisis also raises fundamental questions about political leadership, fundamental human rights and how states engage and enforce social distancing rules. It is interesting to make a first comparison between different federal and decentralised systems, and how they have implemented crisis management structures differently. More comparative research on this topic is will certainly be forthcoming, not least to examine if federal and decentralised systems have the same level of efficiency when dealing with such a fundamental challenge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soeren Keil is Reader in Politics and International Relations at Canterbury Christ Church University, and he is also the Director of the Centre for European Studies (CEFEUS). <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The current coronavirus crisis has affected most countries in the world. Many of them have reacted with strict social distancing measures, including curfews, stricter police controls and more executive decision-making.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88085,"featured_media":13,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-teaching"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"authorName":"Christina Ackah-Annobil","featuredImage":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/645\/2018\/08\/blogs-holding680x453.jpg","postExcerpt":"The current coronavirus crisis has affected most countries in the world. Many of them have reacted with strict social distancing measures, including curfews, stricter police controls and more executive decision-making.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88085"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5822"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5833,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5822\/revisions\/5833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}