In modern, policy-heavy democracies, blame games about policy controversies are commonplace. Despite their ubiquity, blame games are notoriously difficult to study. This book elevates them to the ...place they deserve in the study of politics and public policy. Blame games are microcosms of conflictual politics that yield unique insights into democracies under pressure. Based on an original framework and the comparison of fifteen blame games in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, and the US, it exposes the institutionalized forms of conflict management that democracies have developed to manage policy controversies. Whether failed infrastructure projects, food scandals, security issues, or flawed policy reforms, democracies manage policy controversies in an idiosyncratic manner. This book is addressed not only to researchers and students interested in political conflict in the fields of political science, public policy, public administration, and political communication, but to everyone concerned about the functioning of democracy in more conflictual times. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Governing the Pandemic Boin, Arjen; McConnell, Allan; t Hart, Paul
2021, 2021-05-10
eBook
Open access
This open access book offers unique insights into how governments and governing systems, particularly in advanced economies, have responded to the immense challenges of managing the coronavirus ...pandemic and the ensuing disease COVID-19. Written by three eminent scholars in the field of the politics and policy of crisis management, it offers a unique ‘bird’s eye’ view of the immense logistical and political challenges of addressing a worst-case scenario that would prove the ultimate stress test for societies, governments, governing institutions and political leaders. It examines how governments and governing systems have (i) made sense of emerging transboundary threats that have spilled across health, economic, political and social systems (ii) mobilised systems of governance and often fearful and sceptical citizens (iii) crafted narratives amid high uncertainty about the virus and its impact and (iv) are working towards closure and a return to ‘normal’ when things can never quite be the same again. The book also offers the building blocks of pathways to future resilience. Succeeding and failing in all these realms is tied in with governance structures, experts, trust, leadership capabilities and political ideologies. The book appeals to anyone seeking to understand ‘what’s going on?’, but particularly academics and students across multiple disciplines, journalists, public officials, politicians, non-governmental organisations and citizen groups.
The current Coronavirus crisis is having disastrous effects for most B2B firms around the world. The decline in sales provokes intra-organizational and inter-organizational tension, requiring a new ...approach for managing firms' business operations. Particularly, the direct threat to human beings places the attention of managers on the individual. This study investigates the main differences between prior “traditional” financial-based crises and the practices that managers can adopt to navigate and survive the Coronavirus crisis from a social exchange theory (SET) view. The authors identify eight crisis-comparative dimensions to consider to successfully prevail: (1) formation, (2) focus, (3) temporality, (4) government jurisdiction, (5) preparedness, (6) normality, (7) business, and (8) operational deployment. In addition, the study results propose four intertwined areas to classify the managerial practices: (1) digital transformation, (2) decision-making processes, (3) leadership, and (4) emotions and stress.
•Coronavirus crisis analysis based on social exchange theory (SET). The nature of the Coronavirus crisis underpins the view of B2B intra-organizational and inter-organizational interactions from a more psycho-sociological perspective.•Coronavirus crisis is compared with traditional financial-based crises regarding: (1) formation, (2) focus, (3) temporality, (4) government jurisdiction, (5) preparedness, (6) normality, (7) business, and (8) operational deployment. As a result, the uniqueness of Coronavirus for B2B managers is made clear.•22 practices are identified in order to be managed during the current Coronavirus crisis. Such practices should be contrasted with the internal and external realities of firms. Hence, B2B managers can prioritize their adoption.
Results are classified into four intertwined areas: (1) digital transformation, (2) decision-making processes, (3) leadership, and (4) emotions and stress. Such a classification helps B2B managers to process the suggestions indicated in the study.
The paper argues for the need to look beyond norms in accounting for the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) noncommittal approach to crisis management in Zimbabwe from the year 2000 ...onwards. To justify this need, the paper highlights some notable limitations in the dominant normative explanations for SADC's noncommittal approach to Zimbabwe. The paper posits that norms do not account for SADC's inconsistent approach to crisis management despite their popularity. Norms, therefore, provide a partial and incomplete explanation for SADC's noncommittal approach to Zimbabwe. The paper concludes that the key factors shaping SADC's noncommittal approach to Zimbabwe go beyond just norms to include regional power dynamics in SADC. Therefore, this paper recommends extending the debate on SADC's approach to Zimbabwe beyond the currently dominant issue of norms.
This essay addresses how the Norwegian government has handled the coronavirus pandemic. Compared with many other countries, Norway has performed well in handling the crisis. This must be understood ...in the context of competent politicians, a high‐trust society with a reliable and professional bureaucracy, a strong state, a good economic situation, a big welfare state, and low population density. The Norwegian government managed to control the pandemic rather quickly by adopting a suppression strategy, followed by a control strategy, based on a collaborative and pragmatic decision‐making style, successful communication with the public, a lot of resources, and a high level of citizen trust in government. The alleged success of the Norwegian case is about the relationship between crisis management capacity and legitimacy. Crisis management is most successful when it is able to combine democratic legitimacy with government capacity.
This article reviews 142 papers published between 1960 and 2018 on tourism risk, crisis and disaster management. The article (1) takes a thematic approach to synthesise past research focus and ...identifies gaps, (2) examines research methodologies employed, and (3) suggests future research and methodological approaches to help progress the field. The article also launches the Annals of Tourism Research Curated Collection on tourism risk, crisis and disaster management, which contains past and hot off the press work on the topic and will continue to grow as new articles on the topic appear in Annals.
•Synthesises 142 journal papers on tourism risk, crisis and disaster management•Identifies research focus and methodologies employed•Identifies research gaps and suggests future research topics and methodological approaches•Launches the Annals Virtual Special Issue on Tourism Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management
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