Political decision-making in a pandemic

Abstract

Crises are moments that put many things into question – especially our decision-making procedures. These decisions can be examined in a chronological order, from the decisions that governments have to take in order to be prepared for a crisis before it takes place, to the decisions that are taken during the crisis and to those that are taken as a result of it. I pose four questions raised by critical situations: The first question is whether we were prepared for the crisis, that is, how it is decided when there is, so to speak, nothing left to decide. When crises erupt, their outcome is largely conditioned by the ways in which our democratic societies anticipate them and prepare for them. The second question is whether populist systems (or, if you prefer, the populist features of many governments) offer an appropriate decision-making structure to deal with a crisis such as the current health crisis. Third, I examine the drama that inevitably characterizes political decisions taken in the midst of a crisis that affects different parts of society unequally. And fourth, I explore the debates that we must hold on globalization which, from this point of view, are going to require that we review the level of governance that is most appropriate for each kind of risk.