Public Administration and Creeping Crises: Insights From COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that a new and unforeseen threat easily outmatched political-administrative systems currently in place. Our commentary on the Italian case contributes to the call for public administration scholars to incorporate crisis management into the main research agendas of the field. We focus on regulatory capacity that is needed to tackle the effects of COVID-19. Under crisis conditions of radical urgency and uncertainty, the Italian regulatory policy has been based on temporary, fast-track procedures. The latter have been regularly applied when Italian governments confront with natural disasters and prompt action is ensured by a repertoire of extraordinary measures running in parallel to burdensome ordinary procedures. We discuss the implications of this “two-track” approach for governance capacity and legitimacy. We also extrapolate existing trends and engage with projection of future developments.

Managing Pandemics—Demands, Resources, and Effective Behaviors Within Crisis Management Teams

“…For CMTs that are used to leading from a safe, distant position, being at risk is a new burden that may increase individual strain. In addition, CMTs are highly dependent on political decisions (e.g., Christensen & Lægreid, 2020; Di Mascio, Natalini, & Cacciatore, 2020), which are partly determined by political constellations, goals and attitudes—and these can change rapidly. The decisions CMTs make during a pandemic, are far reaching and intensely affect private, public and economic life.…”

“…Thus, it is important to better understand the work dynamics of CMTs and their members’ coping strategies. Except for initial analyses of individual countries’ handling of the crisis (e.g., Christensen & Lægreid, 2020; Di Mascio et al, 2020; Moon, 2020), no psychological studies have looked at COVID‐19 CMTs and how they can be supported and improved. Thus, even though the combination of the job demands and resources model with concepts from teamwork research provides an initial theoretical framework, we believed that the pioneering character of our research requires an explorative strategy in order to contextualize our initial framework and to better understand the work experiences of CMT members from a psychological perspective.…”

Culture, Institution, and COVID-19 First-Response Policy: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Thirty-One Countries

“…Italy, for example, as the first epicenter of COVID-19 in Europe, without the warning from the WHO, responded slowly to the fast-moving crisis in the early stages. Although Italians with a tight culture demonstrated high compliance with strict quarantine guidelines adopted late (Balsamo and Carlucci 2020), the Italian government has been widely criticized for its initial response to the pandemic due to its weak state implementation capacity (Mascio et al 2020;Pisano et al 2020). It took the country three weeks to move from a stay-at-home regulation, instituted following the first confirmed case of the virus, to an imposed ban, and it took five weeks to move to a position where they were able to fully implement a lockdown.…”

Covid-19 in Italy : Impact of Lockdown in Italy on Socio-Economic Situation

“…In addition, the government also allocates 30 billion euros to affected companies for freelancers and guarantees short-term funding (credit and loans) of up to six years. (Mascio et al, 2020). On March 29, the National Civil Protection also sent 400 million euros to all municipalities for their residents to purchase food vouchers and basic necessities based on population and income criteria.…”