Governing the Pandemic: The Politics of Navigating a Mega-Crisis

ISBN-13: 9783030726799 / Angielski / Twarda / 2021 / 130 str.

Arjen Boin; Allan McConnell; Paul 't Hart

Spis treści

Chapter 1. The year of the unthinkable

• Annus Horribilis
• A crisis perspective on pandemic governance
• The unique characteristics of the COVID-19 crisis
• How did it go? First impressions
• A preview of the book

Chapter 2. What's going on?

• A sense-making nightmare
• Detecting COVID-19: Common challenges
• The role of experts
• Navigating uncertainty: Science-policy interface at knife's edge
• The precarious politics of sense-making

Chapter 3. Getting things done

• When the rule book no longer works
• Governance challenges
• First responses
• Governance capacity and legitimacy
• The politics of crisis governance

Chapter 4. Crafting narratives

• Constructing the meaning of the COVID-19 crisis
• The rise and fall of crisis narratives
• The power of words
• Framing contests
• Communicating COVID-19
• A long rollercoaster ride

Chapter 5. Towards closure

• The need for closure
• The politics of accountability
• The politics of learning

Chapter 6. Pathways to resilience

• Pivoting forward
• Overcoming organized blindness
• Vigilant decision-making 
• Managing fragmentation
• Credible crisis narratives
• Managing collective stress
• What matters now

O autorze

Arjen Boin is Professor of Public Institutions and Governance, Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, the Netherlands. He has published widely on topics of crisis and disaster management, leadership, institutional design and organizational issues. He is also a managing partner at Crisisplan BV and founding member of the European Societal Security Research Group.

Allan McConnell is Professor of Public Policy at the University of Sydney, Australia. He has published extensively on the politics of risk and crisis management, crisis exploitation, warning signs, contingency planning, policy success, policy failure and fiascos, policy evaluation, policy processes, wicked problems, hidden agendas, symbolic policies and policy inaction.

Paul ‘t Hart is Professor of Public Administration at Utrecht University School of Governance, the Netherland, and a core faculty member of the Australia New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG), Australia. His extensive publication record addresses issues such as successful public governance/policies, organisations and collaborations; political and public service leadership, and crisis politics and crisis governance.

Blurb

This open access book offers unique insights into how governments and governing systems, particularly in advanced economies, have responded to the immense challenges of managing the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing disease COVID-19. Written by three eminent scholars in the field of the politics and policy of crisis management, it offers a unique ‘bird’s eye’ view of the immense logistical and political challenges of addressing a worst-case scenario that would prove the ultimate stress test for societies, governments, governing institutions and political leaders. It examines how governments and governing systems have (i) made sense of emerging transboundary threats that have spilled across health, economic, political and social systems (ii) mobilised systems of governance and often fearful and sceptical citizens (iii) crafted narratives amid high uncertainty about the virus and its impact and (iv) are working towards closure and a return to ‘normal’ when things can never quite be the same again. The book also offers the building blocks of pathways to future resilience. Succeeding and failing in all these realms is tied in with governance structures, experts, trust, leadership capabilities and political ideologies. The book appeals to anyone seeking to understand ‘what’s going on?’, but particularly academics and students across multiple disciplines, journalists, public officials, politicians, non-governmental organisations and citizen groups.

Arjen Boin is Professor of Public Institutions and Governance, Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, the Netherlands. 

Allan McConnell is Professor of Public Policy at the University of Sydney, Australia. 

Paul ‘t Hart is Professor of Public Administration at Utrecht University School of Governance, the Netherland, and a core faculty member of the Australia New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG), Australia.