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Pandemic responses at the subnational level: Exploring politics, administration, and politicization in Swedish municipalities

Pandemic responses at the subnational level: Exploring politics, administration, and... The Swedish response to the pandemic at the national level has attracted considerable international attention, but little focus has been placed on the way municipalities dealt with the crisis. Using Hay's dimensions of politicization, namely the capacity for human agency, deliberation in the public domain, and social context, we analyze the politicization of the municipal response to the pandemic in Sweden. We do this based on the analysis of the decision making process to activate (or not) an extraordinary crisis management committee. We find inter alia, that (i) only a quarter of the municipalities activated the committee while a majority of them had an alternate special organization in place; (ii) support to the existing organizational structure was more salient than creating an extraordinary organization, and (iii) a robust municipal structure was deemed to be one able to withstand shocks without resorting to extraordinary governance arrangements. We find a ‘conditioned politicization’ of the response, privileging administration over politics. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png European Policy Analysis Wiley

Pandemic responses at the subnational level: Exploring politics, administration, and politicization in Swedish municipalities

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References (141)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2022 Policy Studies Organization.
eISSN
2380-6567
DOI
10.1002/epa2.1151
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The Swedish response to the pandemic at the national level has attracted considerable international attention, but little focus has been placed on the way municipalities dealt with the crisis. Using Hay's dimensions of politicization, namely the capacity for human agency, deliberation in the public domain, and social context, we analyze the politicization of the municipal response to the pandemic in Sweden. We do this based on the analysis of the decision making process to activate (or not) an extraordinary crisis management committee. We find inter alia, that (i) only a quarter of the municipalities activated the committee while a majority of them had an alternate special organization in place; (ii) support to the existing organizational structure was more salient than creating an extraordinary organization, and (iii) a robust municipal structure was deemed to be one able to withstand shocks without resorting to extraordinary governance arrangements. We find a ‘conditioned politicization’ of the response, privileging administration over politics.

Journal

European Policy AnalysisWiley

Published: Sep 1, 2022

Keywords: COVID 19; local government; politicization; politics administration dichotomy; Sweden; 2019冠状病毒病; 瑞典; 政治行政二分法; 地方政府; 政治化; COVID 19; Suecia; dicotomía política administración; gobierno local; politización

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