{"id":5858,"date":"2020-04-15T11:32:15","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T10:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/?p=5858"},"modified":"2020-06-08T14:40:23","modified_gmt":"2020-06-08T13:40:23","slug":"revisiting-federalism-and-decentralisation-in-the-age-of-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/politics\/2020\/04\/15\/revisiting-federalism-and-decentralisation-in-the-age-of-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"Revisiting Federalism and Decentralisation in the Age of Coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the last two weeks, we have seen a dramatic escalation of the coronavirus crisis, particularly in Europe and more recently in the United States. There are also growing worries about the spread of the virus in developing countries, and particularly in parts of the world, which are known for poor health care provisions and their inefficient resilience against wider health crises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when comparing the spread of the virus, and the number of deaths in several countries, some interesting patterns emerge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Number of confirmed cases and death in selected European countries, source: https:\/\/coronavirus.jhu.edu\/map.html<\/a> (data correct as of 12 April 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Country<\/strong><\/td>Confirmed<\/strong><\/td>Deaths<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Spain<\/td>166,019<\/td>16,972<\/td><\/tr>
Italy<\/td>152,271<\/td>19,468<\/td><\/tr>
Germany<\/td>125,452<\/td>2,871<\/td><\/tr>
France<\/td>93,790<\/td>13,832<\/td><\/tr>
United Kingdom<\/td>78,991<\/td>9,875<\/td><\/tr>
Belgium<\/td>28,018<\/td>3,346<\/td><\/tr>
Switzerland<\/td>25,107<\/td>1,036<\/td><\/tr>
Austria<\/td>13,798<\/td>337<\/td><\/tr>
Bosnia and Herzegovina<\/td>941<\/td>37<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The table above focuses on European cases. What is interesting to see is that Germany, Austria and Switzerland are doing particularly well in terms of keeping the death rate low. Remarkably, Germany still has many more diagnosed patients compared to the UK, France, and Belgium, yet its death toll is lower. Many will attribute this to wide-spread testing in Germany, and the isolation of those who have been diagnosed. Similarly, the percentage of those that have died as a result of the infection is low in Switzerland and Austria, two other federal countries. So, does federalism make a difference, and do federal structures in fact help in manging this crisis better? One could argue that federal countries, particularly those in which some elements of health care provisions are decentralised, tend to be better prepared for crises like this one. Here, the principle of subsidiarity, and the need for regional leaders to be accountable to the people seems to be very important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet,\nwe have seen centralisation tendencies in all three countries since the corona\ncrisis outbreak. Federalism, in other words, might have played less of a role\nthan we assume, as central governments have taken over as crises managers,\nespecially in Austria, but also to some extent in Germany and Switzerland. What\nis more, Belgium, probably the most decentralised country in Europe, does not\nfollow the trend of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and its death rate is\nmuch more in line with other European countries such as France, or Spain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So,\nwhat then explains the differences in the death per infection ratio between the\ndifferent countries? This is a core question, and much more research is needed\nto answer it. Surely wide-spread testing and isolation of those infected as\npractised extensively in Germany, Switzerland and Austria seems to make a\ndifference.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise,\nearly commitment to strict social distancing measures also might have made a\ndifference, as countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States\ndelayed their lockdowns, they are now seeing substantially higher death tolls.\nPeople who died in the UK as of 10th<\/sup> of April, got infected some\nthree weeks ago, when the Johnson government was still toying with the idea of\n\u201cherd-immunity\u201d before modelling by Imperial College London predicted that this\nstrategy would lead to some 250,000 deaths. Even then, the government in the UK\ndelayed the closure of main businesses and schools further, losing vital time\nin the process. This pattern seems to be repeating itself in the USA as we\nspeak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of\ncourse, other factors, such as the size and financing of the health care system\nalso play an important role. The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK was\nunderfinanced for years before the crisis, so its current shortfalls are also\nthe result of this underfunding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\ncomparing these data provides some interesting patterns for researchers in the\nfuture. It will raise further questions about the effectiveness of federal\ngovernance structures in dealing with such an extraordinary crises as we are\nwitnessing today. If we look at the USA, we can see that another federal\ncountry seems to demonstrate that federal structures alone neither help prevent\nthe spread nor a rising death toll from coronavirus. Here, factors such as\npolitical leadership and fast and efficient actions in terms of testing and\nsocial distancing\/lockdowns are of key importance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Soeren Keil is Reader in Politics and International Relations, and the Director the Centre for European Studies at Canterbury Christ Church University. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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