This book explains why a democratic reckoning will start when European societies win the fight against COVID-19. Have democracies successfully mastered the challenges of the pandemic? How has the coronavirus impacted democratic principles, processes and values? At the heels of the worst public health crisis in living memory, this book shines an unforgiving light on the side-lining of parliaments, the ruling by governmental decrees and the disenfranchisement of the people in the name of fighting COVID-19. Pandemocracy in Europe situates the dramatic impact of COVID-19, and the fight against the virus, on Europe's democracies. Throughout its 17 contributions the book sets the theoretical stage and answers the democratic questions engaged by health emergencies. Seven national case studies – UK, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Hungary, Switzerland, and France – show, each time with a pronounced focus on a particular element of democracy, how different states reacted to the pandemic. The book also shifts the analytical gaze beyond the nation state towards international settings, looking at the effects on the European Union and considering the impact on populist movements. Bridging disciplines and uniting a stellar cast of scholars on democracy, rule of law and constitutionalism, the book provides contours and nuances to a year of debates in political science, international relations and law on the impact of the virus on democracies. In times of uncertainty, Pandemocracy in Europe provides analysis and answers to the democratic challenges of the coronavirus.
Author(s): Matthias C Kettemann, Konrad Lachmayer
Edition: 1
Publisher: Hart Publishing | Bloomsbury Publishing
Year: 2022
Language: English
Commentary: TruePDF
Pages: 377
Tags: COVID-19 (Disease): Law And Legislation: Europe. 2020: Political Aspects: Europe; COVID-19 Pandemic
Cover
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Cover
Half title
Title
Copyright
Table of Contents
List of Contributors
Introduction and Acknowledgements
Part I: The Theory – Power, People and the Crisis
1. Lawless Extravagance: The Primacy Claim of Politics and the State of Exception in Times of COVID-19
I. The Plague of Lawlessness
II. The Primacy Claim of Politics
III. The Dangerous Abnegation of the Law and a Kantian Response
IV. The State of Emergency: From Paradoxical Voids to Full Powers
V. A Kantian Approach to the State of Exception
VI. Concluding Remarks
2. Abuse of Power and Self-entrenchment as a State Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak: The Role of Parliaments, Courts and the People
I. Introduction
II. Abuse of Power and Political Self-entrenchment During Ordinary Conditions and During Times of Emergency
III. The Difficulty of Facing Political Self-entrenchment During the Pandemic
IV. Conclusions
3. Democracy, Death and Dying: The Potential and Limits of Legal Rationalisation
I. Introduction
II. Pre-Requisites of Legal Thanatology
III. Legal Thanatology: Rationalisations of Life and Death
IV. No Bailout – The Role of Death in the COVID-19 Pandemic in Liberal Democracies
V. Conclusion
Part II: The Practice – Democracies and the Pandemic
4. Virus Governance in the United Kingdom
I. The Constitutional and Political Background
II. The Virus Arrives
III. The Johnson Government's Constitutional Record
IV. Virus Governance
V. Virus Law
VI. Parliamentary Scrutiny
VII. The Need for Parliamentary Scrutiny Reasserted
VIII. The Second Lockdown
IX. Devolved Government and Virus Governance
X. England: The Non-devolved Nation
XI. 'Northern Republic Now!'90
XII. Conclusions
5. Germany – Federalism in Action
I. Introduction
II. Germany and the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020
III. The Relevant German Legal Framework
IV. Critical Evaluation of the German Legal Regime for Pandemics
V. The Way Forward: Options for Legal and Political Reform in Germany
6. The Marginalisation of Parliament in Facing the Coronavirus Emergency: What about Democracy in Italy?
I. Introduction
II. Early Legal Reactions to the COVID-19 Crisis in Italy
III. The Impact of Reactions to COVID-19 on Democracy in Italy
IV. Concluding Remarks
7. Swedish Constitutional Response to the Coronavirus Crisis The Odd One Out?
I. Introduction
II. Swedish Legal Responses to the Coronavirus Crisis
III. Legislative Institutions and the Judiciary: Parliamentary Sovereignty
IV. The Executive Branch: Command, Control and Delegation
V. Questions of Accountability for the Executive Branch
VI. Extraordinary Measures in Times of Crises
VII. Constitutionalism, Governance, Social Trust and Consensus-building
VIII. Concluding Thoughts: Does the Swedish Strategy Lead to an Accountability Deficit?
8. Using Emergency Powers in Hungary: Against the Pandemic and/or Democracy?
I. Introduction
II. The Constitutional Landscape of Emergency Situations in Hungarian Law
III. Declaring the First State of Danger
IV. The First Authorisation Act
V. Crisis Management with Government Decrees
VI. The Management of the Legal Consequences of the Emergency Situation
VII. State of Danger Reloaded
VIII. Conclusions
9. Switzerland: The (Missing) Role of Parliament in Times of Crisis
I. The COVID-19 Pandemic, a Shutdown of Swiss Democracy?
II. From Executive Emergency Ordinances to Parliamentary Emergency Legislation: Parliament's Adoption of the COVID-19 Act
III. Parliamentary Lawmaking in Times of COVID-19: The Swiss Federal Assembly's Adjustment to the Pandemic
IV. Conclusion: COVID-19 as a Missed Opportunity for the Swiss Parliament?
10. The Hyper-Executive State of Emergency in France
I. Introduction: Chronology of the Management of the Health Crisis
II. Management of the Health Crisis within the Executive
III. Putting Democracy in Parentheses in Times of Crisis
IV. Distorting the Rule of Law in the Name of the State of Emergency
V. Conclusion
Part III: Beyond States: Democratic Governance in Times of COVID-19
11. Pandemics, Expertise and Deliberation at the International Level
I. Introduction
II. Unpacking the Mandate of WHO Emergency Committees
III. Assessing WHO Emergency Committee Deliberations: Between Input and Output
IV. Inside the Black-Box: Technocracy and Health Emergencies
V. COVID-19 and the Future of International Deliberation in Health Emergencies
VI. Conclusion: Towards Enhanced Pandemic Deliberation at the International Level
12. EU Response to Fighting the Coronavirus – Coordination, Support, Action – Heeding its Citizens' Calls?
I. Introduction
II. The EU's Health-Competences – Limits, Changes, and Concerns
III. The EU4Health Programme and the Emergency Support Instrument – Answering Citizens' Calls and Paving the Way for New EU Competences?
IV. Conclusion
13. Pandemics and Platforms: Private Governance of (Dis)Information in Crisis Situations
I. Introduction
II. State Responsibilities and Private Duties Regarding Online Communication
III. Platforms in Pandemic Times
IV. Conclusion and Outlook
14. Digital Human Rights Proportionality During Global Crisis
I. The Proportionality Deficit Paradox
II. The Five Caveats and the Pandemic
III. Conclusion
Part IV: Conclusions: Pandemics, Populism and Power
15. The Pandemic and Illiberal Constitutional Theories
I. Emergency Measures by Illiberal Regimes
II. Hungary as a Model Case: From 'Illiberal Democracy' to Autocracy
III. Old and New Normative Justifications for Authoritarian Use of Emergency Power
IV. Conclusion
16. Populism versus Democracy during a Pandemic: Some Preliminary Considerations
I. Populism versus Professionalism?
II. Populists in the Face of COVID-19
III. Democratic, Non-Populist Politics for a Pandemic and a Post-Pandemic World
17. Conclusions: Pandemocracy – Governing for the People, without the People?
I. Emergency Approaches in the Pandemic
II. The Role of the Parliaments
III. Multi-Level Democracy
IV. Final Conclusions
Index
