Do we need to reconceptualise democracy as a pandemocracy? Has European multi-level governance sufficiently supported member states in the health crisis? What role have internet platforms taken on? Will democracies also suffer from long COVID?
Prof. Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann and Konrad Lachmayer addressed these questions as editors of the anthology Pandemocracy in Europe. Power, Parliaments and People in Times of COVID-19 together with a team of authors from all over Europe. The book focuses on the impact of the fight against COVID-19 on European democracies in times of the pandemic, with contributions linking debates in political Science, international relations and law.
Abstract
This open access 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.
Kettemann, M.C.; Lachmayer, K. (eds.) (2021): Pandemocracy in Europe. Power, Parliaments and People in Times of COVID-19. Oxford: Hart Publishing.
