Are Vegard Haug - Böcker

This topical book presents a bottom-up perspective on the crisis management, policies, organisation and functioning of democracy across five Nordic countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a four-year comparative study of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, it considers the divergent local and regional management strategies employed as the crisis unfolded.Chapters consider how the pandemic jeopardised the Nordic countries’ high levels of decentralisation and citizen trust in government institutions, and the devolution of functions to local government. They explore the severe and restrictive measures employed to control the spread of the virus, and whether these evolving regimes respected civil rights and the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. Brought together under the overarching perspective of institutional polycentrism, the book draws on a variety of theoretical strands, including theories of multi-level governance, crisis management, and organisational dependency. With empirical data, population and leader surveys and country case-studies, it presents the experiences of Nordic citizens and examines whether their trust in government was sustained or eroded.International in scope, this book is invaluable for students and scholars of regulation and governance, public administration, public health policy, and comparative politics. Its examinations of regulatory and legal frameworks will also prove useful for policy advisors working in public health and crisis management.

How regions and cities adapt to a Network Society and a globalized environment, the policies they pursue and how structures of governance are transformed in the pursuit of those policies are major themes in this volume. These issues are addressed with specific reference to the Nordic regions of Europe. Covering the four Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden plus the Faroe Islands, this volume charts the changes in networking activities and related development initiatives that have taken place over the last ten years. This means analysing regions in their pursuit of new policies, partnerships and styles of representation. Through this process regions are becoming partners and players in European integration and a movement of integrative regionalism is taking shape which is different from inward looking identity regionalism or self-centred competitive regionalism and takes regions beyond lobbying in Brussels.