title: Pandemocracy in Europe: Power, Parliaments and People in Times of COVID-19
Creators: name: Kettemann, Matthias C.
name: Lachmayer, Konrad
Publisher: name: Hart Publishing
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: 10501 Basic Research, General Concepts and History of Political Science
subject: 10504 Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
subject: Europe
subject: EU
subject: Great Britain
subject: Federal Republic of Germany
subject: Italy
subject: Sweden
subject: Hungary
subject: Switzerland
subject: France
subject: epidemic
subject: democracy
subject: constitutional state
subject: constitutionalism
subject: political science
subject: international relations
subject: legal factors

description: 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.
description: Matthias C Kettemann and Konrad Lachmayer: Introduction and Acknowledgements; 1. Paul Gragl: Lawless Extravagance: The Primacy Claim of Politics and the State of Exception in Times of COVID-19; 2. Antonios Kouroutakis: Abuse of Power and Self-entrenchment as a State Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak: The Role of Parliaments, Courts and the People; 3. Konrad Lachmayer: Democracy, Death and Dying: The Potential and Limits of Legal Rationalisation; 4. Robert Thomas: Virus Governance in the United Kingdom; 5. Pierre Thielbörger: Germany - Federalism in Action; 6. Arianna Vedaschi: The Marginalisation of Parliament in Facing the Coronavirus Emergency: What about Democracy in Italy?; 7. Julia Dahlqvist and Jane Reichel: Swedish Constitutional Response to the Coronavirus Crisis. The Odd One Out?; 8. Zoltán Szente and Fruzsina Gárdos-Orosz: Using Emergency Powers in Hungary: Against the Pandemic and/or Democracy? 9. Odile Ammann and Felix Uhlmann: Switzerland: The (Missing) Role of Parliament in Times of Crisis; 10. Sylvia Brunet: The Hyper-Executive State of Emergency in France; 11. Pedro A Villarreal: Pandemics, Expertise and Deliberation at the International Level; 12. Anja Naumann: EU Response to Fighting the Coronavirus - Coordination, Support, Action - Heeding its Citizens’ Calls?; 13. Matthias C. Kettemann and Marie-Therese Sekwenz: Pandemics and Platforms: Private Governance of (Dis)Information in Crisis Situations; 14. Mart Susi: Digital Human Rights Proportionality During Global Crisis; 15. Gábor Halmai: The Pandemic and Illiberal Constitutional Theories; 16. Jan-Werner Müller: Populism versus Democracy during a Pandemic: Some Preliminary Considerations; 17. Konrad Lachmayer and Matthias C. Kettemann: Conclusions: Pandemocracy - Governing for the People, without the People?