Open Access
The strength of a weak centre : pandemic politics in the European Union and the United States
Loading...
Files
The_strength_of_a_weak_centre_Art_2023.pdf (698.74 KB)
Full-text in Open Access, Published version
License
Attribution 4.0 International
Cadmus Permanent Link
Full-text via DOI
ISBN
ISSN
1472-4790; 1740-388X
Issue Date
Type of Publication
Keyword(s)
LC Subject Heading
Other Topic(s)
EUI Research Cluster(s)
Initial version
Published version
Succeeding version
Preceding version
Published version part
Earlier different version
Initial format
Citation
Comparative European politics, 2023, Vol. 21, pp. 448-469
Cite
ALEXANDER-SHAW, Kate, GANDERSON, Joseph, SCHELKLE, Waltraud, The strength of a weak centre : pandemic politics in the European Union and the United States, Comparative European politics, 2023, Vol. 21, pp. 448-469 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/75955
Abstract
The European Union presents a puzzle to political systems scholars: how can a developing polity, with all its attendant functional weaknesses, be rendered politically stable even through moments of a policy crisis? Building on insights from the literature on fscal federalism, this article challenges much conventional wisdom on Europe’s incompleteness. This is based on the corollary of Jonathan Rodden’s concept of Hamilton’s Paradox: whereas a strong centre cannot resist exploitation by states because it has the means to rescue them, a weak centre’s lack of exploitable capacity may induce states to support, and even empower, it in a crisis. This article argues that in providing a contemporaneous stress-test, Covid-19 serves to expose both the pathologies of a strong-centred federation and the surprising resilience of a weak one. It highlights three polity features—powers, decision-making modes and integrity—and charts their political implications during an acute crisis. The article argues that in the EU these features incentivise cooperative ‘polity maintenance’ between polarised states, a feature absent in an American polity marked by rivalry between polarised parties. The article thus challenges notions that the EU’s incompleteness necessarily leads it to dysfunction or that it should strive to emulate established federations.
Table of Contents
Additional Information
Published online: 30 March 2023