{"title":"Decentralization: A handicap in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic? The response of the regional governments in Spain.","authors":"Mikel Erkoreka, Josu Hernando-Pérez","doi":"10.1002/pad.1988","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an ultimate testing ground for evaluating the resilience and effectiveness of federal and decentralized systems. The article analyses how the Spanish asymmetrical system of decentralization has responded to the pandemic, focusing on the management developed by the sub-central governments (Autonomous Communities) during the first two waves of the pandemic in 2020. The research, which is both quantitative and qualitative, employs multidisciplinary tools and information sources, analyzing and linking fiscal and budgetary sources with the available statistics and information on health. Although the health, economic and social crisis caused by COVID-19 has highlighted appreciable shortcomings related to the decentralized model of territorial organization - in questions of both regional financing and health management - the research concludes that decentralization has not per se been a handicap when confronting the pandemic in Spain.</p>","PeriodicalId":39679,"journal":{"name":"Public Administration and Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2022-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9349406/pdf/PAD-9999-0.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Public Administration and Development","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1988","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"DEVELOPMENT STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an ultimate testing ground for evaluating the resilience and effectiveness of federal and decentralized systems. The article analyses how the Spanish asymmetrical system of decentralization has responded to the pandemic, focusing on the management developed by the sub-central governments (Autonomous Communities) during the first two waves of the pandemic in 2020. The research, which is both quantitative and qualitative, employs multidisciplinary tools and information sources, analyzing and linking fiscal and budgetary sources with the available statistics and information on health. Although the health, economic and social crisis caused by COVID-19 has highlighted appreciable shortcomings related to the decentralized model of territorial organization - in questions of both regional financing and health management - the research concludes that decentralization has not per se been a handicap when confronting the pandemic in Spain.
期刊介绍:
Since its founding in 1949, Public Administration and Development (PAD) has been reviewing and assessing the practice of public administration at the local, regional, national and international levels where it is directed to managing development processes in low and medium income countries. It gives special attention to investigations of the management of all phases of public policy formulation and implementation which have an interest and importance beyond a particular government and state. PAD has a particular interest in the link between public administration practice and management research and provides a professional and academic forum for reporting on new experiences and experiments. PAD also publishes articles on development management research in the NGO sector. It is widely read by academics and practitioners alike, including consultants, donors and policy advisers. With its case study approach, it is also frequently used for teaching and training purposes.