Tracing divergence in crisis governance: responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in France, Germany and Sweden compared
| Author | Renate Reiter,Ulf Ramberg,Sabine Kuhlmann,Mikael Hellström |
| Published date | 01 September 2021 |
| Date | 01 September 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0020852320979359 |
| Subject Matter | Special Issue: Testing the crisis: opportunity management and governance of the COVID-19 pandemic comparedGuest editors: Sabine Kuhlmann, Geert Bouckaert, Davide Galli, Renate Reiter and Steven Van HeckeArticles |
Article
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Tracing divergence in
crisis governance:
responses to the
COVID-19 pandemic in
France, Germany and
Sweden compared
Sabine Kuhlmann
University of Potsdam, Germany
Mikael Hellstr€
om
Lund University, Sweden
Ulf Ramberg
Lund University, Sweden
Renate Reiter
FernUniversit€
at in Hagen, Germany
Abstract
This cross-country comparison of administrative responses to the COVID-19 pandem-
ic in France, Germany and Sweden is aimed at exploring how institutional contexts and
administrative cultures have shaped strategies of problem-solving and governance
modes during the pandemic, and to what extent the crisis has been used for oppor-
tunity management. The article shows that in France, the central government reacted
determinedly and hierarchically, with tough containment measures. By contrast, the
response in Germany was characterized by an initial bottom-up approach that gave way
to remarkable federal unity in the further course of the crisis, followed again by a
return to regional variance and local discretion. In Sweden, there was a continuation
Corresponding author:
Sabine Kuhlmann, Universit€
at Potsdam Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakult€
at August-Bebel-Str.,89
14482, Potsdam, Germany.
Email: Sabine.Kuhlmann@uni-potsdam.de
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
!The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0020852320979359
journals.sagepub.com/home/ras
2021, Vol. 87(3) 556–575
of ‘normal governance’ and a strategy of relying on voluntary compliance largely based
on recommendations and less – as in Germany and France – on a strategy of imposing
legally binding regulations. The comparative analysis also reveals that relevant stake-
holders in all three countries have used the crisis as an opportunity for changes in the
institutional settings and administrative procedures.
Points for practitioners
COVID-19 has shown that national political and administrative standard operating
procedures in preparation for crises are, at best, partially helpful. Notwithstanding
the fact that dealing with the unpredictable is a necessary part of crisis management,
a need to further improve the institutional preparedness for pandemic crises in all three
countries examined here has also become clear. This should be done particularly by
way of shifting resources to the health and care sectors, strengthening the decentral-
ized management of health emergencies, stocking and/or self-producing protection
material, assessing the effects of crisis measures, and opening the scientific discourse
to broader arenas of experts.
Keywords
administrative culture, containment, crisis, governance, multi-level system, policy
advice, public health, window of opportunity
Introduction
1
This article compares the administrative responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in
France, Germany and Sweden, focusing on the first phase of the pandemic. These
three countries represent distinct administrative cultures in Europe; thus, each of
them managed the crisis through different trajectories. Whereas Germany and
France opted for a strict containment approach, with partial lockdown
(Germany) or complete lockdown (France), the Swedish government defended
its more liberal strategy of voluntary containment measures and standard precau-
tions, avoiding mass quarantine. The aim of this article is to reveal the adminis-
trative responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores how institutional
contexts and administrative cultures have shaped strategies of problem-solving
and governance modes during the pandemic. Furthermore, we analyse to what
extent the crisis has been used for opportunity management, that is, seizing it as a
window of opportunity for further institutional reforms. We begin with the
assumption that the country-specific institutional and cultural ‘starting conditions’
will shape the countries’ administrative responses to the crisis, problem-solving
strategies and modes of crisis governance. Strategies chosen to mitigate the pan-
demic are expected to largely depend on institutional features and administrative
cultures inherited from and ingrained in the past. These governance strategies
557
Kuhlmann et al.
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