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Gotcha! Coronavirus, Crises and the Politics of Blame Games

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
DOI10.1177/2041905820933371
Published date01 June 2020
AuthorMatthew Flinders
Date01 June 2020
22 POLITICAL INSIGHT • JUNE 2020
Amongst the many uncertainties
posed by the COVID-19
pandemic we could always
be condent in making one
prediction. That the ‘COVID crisis’ would,
sooner or later, lead to an outbreak of
divisive and disruptive political blame
games as politicians, policymakers, advisers
and experts all sought to avoid carrying
the can for those decisions or opinions that
inevitably turned out to be wrong. Already,
in the UK and elsewhere, there are signs that
the political blame game is starting.
This article will explore the crisis and
Gotcha! Coronavirus,
Crises and the Politics
of Blame Games
Politicians are primarily motivated by avoiding blame for failure.
But what happens in a major crisis, when some level of failure is
inevitable? Matthew Flinders examines the politics of blame during
the COVID-19 pandemic.
the politics of blame, making three related
arguments. The rst is that governmental
responses to pandemics in the past have
generally been viewed through the lens of
policy failures rather successes. The second
argument is that politicians are well aware of
the fact that crisis management is a risky aair
and will therefore seek to utilise a number
of blame-avoidance and self-preservation
strategies. Although defending politicians is
beyond the scope of this discussion, the third
point is that too much accountability can be
as problematic as too little.
© Press Association

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