Uncoordinated federalism: Subnational response to the pandemic crisis in Mexico

The COVID-19 pandemic has demanded prompt actions from governments all over the world. In both developed and developing countries, national governments have had to make unprecedented decisions to face the extraordinary challenges posed by the pandemic. In this paper, we explore how, due to the limited intervention from the Mexican federal government (in terms of policy actions, funding mechanisms and acting as a coordinating agent), state governments stepped up to respond to the pandemic. We argue that Mexico's response was relatively decentralized and substantially shaped by individual subnational governments. Based on a new dataset of over 600 subnational governments' responses to the social and economic effects of the pandemic, we show that state governments decided to react to the pandemic with their own policy measures, responding locally to pressing concerns. Furthermore, we demonstrate that state government responses varied widely in their scope and ambition, which exacerbated the pandemic's uneven national effects. We further contend that the structural constraints of Mexico's federalism have had an impact on these reactions, as social policy responsibilities at the state and local levels have historically been opaque and fragmented and state governments lack the funding necessary to implement sufficient and innovative initiatives. © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Subnational government responses to the Covid-19 pandemic: Expectations, realities and lessons for the future

Although national government and international actor responses to the Covid-19 pandemic have been very much in the public eye, the subnational government role has received less attention. Certain pandemic impacts were universal, but the mix and relative severity differed across countries, The actions taken had to reflect these variations, as well as to reflect country socio-economic, fiscal, institutional and political context. Diversity across areas within countries also required differentiated action. This article provides an overview of the potential subnational government role in pandemic response, summarizes what is known about what actually occurred, and raises the prospect that what was learned in the pandemic might help policymakers and managers both to identify ways to better respond in future crises and to create awareness of and opportunities for needed reforms in intergovernmental systems. This background sets the stage for other articles in this issue that focus on selected countries. Their experiences reinforce lessons from global experience and also provide insights from deeper analysis of specific cases. © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The City of Harare's response to COVID-19: A case for international co-operation and solidarity.

This article uses the case of the City of Harare to offer insights into how the coronavirus pandemic shaped paradiplomacy in Zimbabwe. It argues that the City of Harare's international partnerships played a nominal role in helping its response to COVID-19. There is strong evidence that the coronavirus pandemic undermined the significance of international co-operation and solidarity by African subnational governments in pursuit of their development and service delivery mandates. Better leveraging of the City of Harare's international partnerships had the potential to transform many of the challenges it faced in fighting the pandemic. The absence of a robust international dimension in the city's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic was one of the main factors that resulted in most of its responses being ineffective. The article concludes that the City of Harare's experience offers important lessons to, among others, African governments on the need to integrate decentralised responses and city-to-city co-operation into their future national disaster and economic response, recovery and resilience strategies.

Inequalities and the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil: Analyzing un-coordinated responses in social assistance and education

This paper contributes to discussions about subnational responses to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in federal countries. In the scholarship on federalism and public policy, few studies seek to understand the factors that shape subnational differences in welfare levels. This article seeks to better understand this issue in Brazil by exploring how, in a context with little national-level coordination, subnational governments tackle the inequalities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study analyzes two social policy areas with distinct national-level coordination mechanisms and federal responsibilities: social assistance and education. Two multi-level cases are examined: the states of Amazonas and Sao Paulo and the cities of Manaus and Sao Paulo. This analysis relies on quantitative data, mainly social indicators, and qualitative data collected through documents and in-depth interviews. Social assistance and education policy actors in Amazonas and Sao Paulo faced at times significant obstacles adapting and/or creating policies to tackle inequalities, resulting in a fend-for-yourself federalism and fragmented subnational policies. Differences in subnational responses can be explained by distinct policy legacies and previous capacity, which were key in organizing a useful response to the pandemic. However, to fully explain subnational responses, the role of actors within institutional contexts must also be taken into account. In social assistance, shared responsibilities among different levels of government led to competition and credit claiming dynamics, reinforcing fragmented and uncoordinated responses. In education, decentralization and more stable funding allowed political leadership to activate and mobilize subnational capacities and other actors at the subnational level, producing more sustainable responses.

Intergovernmental relations during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil: an analysis of the states' performances

In the current context of crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we observe a rearrangement of federative relations in Brazil, in force since the Federal Constitution of 1988. With the vacuum left by the lack of action by the federal government, new action arrangements have been designed by the other entities of the federation, by the states and municipalities. In this context, this paper aims to map the intergovernmental relations developed during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil based on the actions of the states. For this, we analyzed the regulations elaborated by the 26 Brazilian states and the Federal District and published in the Official Gazettes of these states between February and December 2020 were analyzed.