ABSTRACT
The goal of this paper is to deliver a comparative analysis of the behaviors and statements of the PMs in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, using the concept of adaptive leaderships as a base for analysis. We employed the usage of four fundamental skills proposed by Glover, Friedman and Jones (2002) and of five fundamental recommendations proposed by Macpherson and 't Hart (2020) to assess the behaviors and relevant statements of the PMs of the four analyzed countries during the time of the pandemic. The fact that all four analyzed PMs did not employ many adaptive leadership skills and recommendations may serve as one of the possible explanations for the very problematic results in fighting COVID-19 during the second phase of the pandemic, when especially the Czech Republic and Slovakia belonged to the most affected countries. The costs of such limited competence are borne by citizens and businesses.
ABSTRACT
The goal of this article is to evaluate what the Czech and Slovak governments have done to protect their countries and try to assess why they have achieved different results for the first and second waves of the Covid-19 pandemic. The basis for such evaluation is the concept of collaborative governance, while qualitative research methods are used to achieve this goal. Based on comprehensive case studies and following analysis, the article suggests that in countries with limited quality of collaborative governance and no experience in similar pandemics, short-term "ultra-mobilisation" and positive results are indeed possible, but failures are non-avoidable in the long run. During the second wave of the pandemic, the weaknesses in governance resulted in massive governance failures. As a result, the governments' responses delivered very limited results in terms of prevalence of Covid-19.
ABSTRACT
Families with dependent children are among the social groups most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper examines the development of measures applied by the Czech national government for compensating families with children during the COVID-19 crisis. It summarizes the aims of the measures as announced by the government or its ministries. This is supplemented by a summary of the available opinions of experts and other policy stakeholders. Based on this, the paper discusses the adequacy of the adopted measures and points out lessons for the future policymaking in the given area. A relatively high number of measures were identified. This suggests that the government strived for proactive policy to address families as a vulnerable social group. However, a rapid and sometimes unrestrained legislative process seems to have come at the expense of a proper public debate on the need for and impact of the new measures. Given the uncertain time horizon of the epidemic, the apparent lack of consideration regarding the budgetary implications of the measures seems worrying. © The Author(s) 2021.
ABSTRACT
The goal of this paper is to identify critical factors in success/failure of public policies focusing on fighting the spread of COVID-19 pandemic using a sample of three countries from Central and Eastern Europe with different results regarding COVID-19 morbidity and mortality rates, namely the Czech Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Slovak Republic. Based on comprehensive literature review, three independent variables were worked out: The scope/scale of public policy anti-pandemic interventions, the timing of public policy interventions, and the success of public policies in motivating compliance with anti-pandemic measures. Taking into account the similarity of measures introduced by national governments, the results suggest that the timing of public policy responses and success in motivating compliance may be critical factors in containing the pandemic. © 2020 Tatiana Chubarova et al., published by Sciendo.