Abstract
Abstract Globally, policy environments have become increasingly more complex with the growth in the number of wicked problems, such as that posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In their response to these problems, public administrations have, from necessity, become heavily reliant on their intergovernmental relations systems, as the challenges posed generally require multilevel responses. This paper analyzes the role of intergovernmental relations in shaping the responses of the BRICS countries when confronted with COVID-19. We develop an analytical framework to understand the dynamics of intergovernmental relations in these countries. Based on this we assess the capacity of the state and political systems to manage intergovernmental relations and ensure effective responses to the COVID-19 crisis. This framework is based on an analysis of three dimensions of the policy domain: the political and state system, formal and informal institutions, and the political alignment between them. Whilst state and political systems were found to be instrumental in formulating an immediate response to the crisis, informal institutions and political processes also played a prominent role in determining the extent to which strategies were implemented, particularly in countries that are more decentralized. Countries lacking the robust formal institutions needed to facilitate intergovernmental relations and to ensure swift policy responses, tend to deliver ineffective and inefficient results when confronted with wicked problems.
Highlights
The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world has necessitated an unprecedented response from public administrations, at all levels of the governing hierarchy, in order to respond rapidly to the crisis on a variety of different fronts
Faced with the rapid spread of the Corona virus it became necessary to devolve national functions and resources to lower levels of governance in order to ensure that measures were implemented effectively at the local level. What emerges from this discussion is that the responsibilities and jurisdictional boundaries of different levels of government, together with their budgetary entitlements, need to be clearly defined and legislated if an intergovernmental relations system is to be effective in combating a wicked problem such as that created by the COVID-19 pandemic
There are a number conclusions that can be drawn from an application of the analytical framework developed above to assess the role of intergovernmental relations in state responses to wicked problems such as COVID-19
Summary
The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world has necessitated an unprecedented response from public administrations, at all levels of the governing hierarchy, in order to respond rapidly to the crisis on a variety of different fronts. Other stakeholders in society, such as the private sector and civil society organizations (CSOs), have an important role to play in building public awareness and in overcoming political divisions that might constrain collective responses to major policy challenges (Agranoff, 2011; Davenport & Prusak, 2000) In this context, a key governance question relates to the way in which intergovernmental cooperation and support aid or impede a state’s response to wicked problems. China and South African have unitary systems ( the later embodies elements of federalism in its constitution), while Russia, India and Brazil are federal states which have devolved parts of the decision making authority to lower echelons of government This diversity in the forms of state in the BRICS countries provides an opportunity to analyze how different types of intergovernmental relationships have been able to respond to the crisis precipitated by COVID-19 and to assess how this has progressed over time. Notwithstanding these differences, our research underscores the importance of cooperative forms of intergovernmental relations in formulating coordinated and swift responses to the pandemic
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