Wrestling with multiple accountabilities in times of crisis: Findings from the experiences of Chinese local governments in responding to COVID‐19

Abstract

Governments around the world, when faced with a crisis, struggle to manage various legitimate accountability expectations. Our study investigated how Chinese local governments reconcile social and hierarchical accountability in managing COVID‐19. We found that local governments are generally more responsive to hierarchical than social accountability. Moreover, senior officials are highly unlikely to shirk their duties toward hierarchical accountability when a crisis is severe. Furthermore, crisis severity increases local governments' responsiveness to social accountability. Our study has encircled our understanding regarding the management of multiple accountabilities in crisis.