Pandemocracy in Europe

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. The open access edition of this book is available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on www.bloomsburycollections.com

Understanding the Creeping Crisis

This open access book explores a special species of trouble afflicting modern societies: creeping crises. These crises evolve over time, reveal themselves in different ways, and resist comprehensive responses despite periodic public attention. As a result, these crises continue to creep in front of our eyes. This book begins by defining the concept of a creeping crisis, showing how existing literature fails to properly define and explore this phenomenon and outlining the challenges such crises pose to practitioners. Drawing on ongoing research, this book presents a diverse set of case studies on: antimicrobial resistance, climate change-induced migration, energy extraction, big data, Covid-19, migration, foreign fighters, and cyberattacks. Each chapter explores how creeping crises come into existence, why they can develop unimpeded, and the consequences they bring in terms of damage and legitimacy loss. The book provides a proof-of-concept to help launch the systematic study of creeping crises. Our analysis helps academics understand a new species of threat and practitioners recognize and prepare for creeping crises

Pandemocracy in Europe

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. The open access edition of this book is available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on www.bloomsburycollections.com

Understanding the Creeping Crisis

This open access book explores a special species of trouble afflicting modern societies: creeping crises. These crises evolve over time, reveal themselves in different ways, and resist comprehensive responses despite periodic public attention. As a result, these crises continue to creep in front of our eyes. This book begins by defining the concept of a creeping crisis, showing how existing literature fails to properly define and explore this phenomenon and outlining the challenges such crises pose to practitioners. Drawing on ongoing research, this book presents a diverse set of case studies on: antimicrobial resistance, climate change-induced migration, energy extraction, big data, Covid-19, migration, foreign fighters, and cyberattacks. Each chapter explores how creeping crises come into existence, why they can develop unimpeded, and the consequences they bring in terms of damage and legitimacy loss. The book provides a proof-of-concept to help launch the systematic study of creeping crises. Our analysis helps academics understand a new species of threat and practitioners recognize and prepare for creeping crises

Examining the origin, nature, and effect of military support to Sierra Leone’s Ebola response.

The 2013–2016 West Africa Ebola Epidemic is the largest outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (Ebola) to date. By mid-2014, cases were escalating rapidly, and response actors in Sierra Leone were overwhelmed. Consequently, the British government announced Operation Gritrock, a bespoke military mission to support the country’s Ebola response alongside the national army. This study examined the origin, nature, and effect of this militarised support and the civil-military relationships that transpired. 110 in-depth interviews were conducted between 2017 and 2018. Perspectives were sought from a range of civilian and military Ebola Response Workers (ERWs) at the chiefdom, district, national, and international levels. Interviews were complemented by analysis of 21 key policy and operational documents not in the public domain obtained through the Freedom of Information Act of 2000. Analysis drew on neo-Durkheimian theory of organisations combined with inductive thematic exploration. Across respondent groupings, the militaries’ intervention was perceived to represent valuable and life-saving assistance, including for the establishment, operation, and leadership of the hierarchically organised National and District Ebola Response Centres. However, it was also found to result in various harms, including the marginalisation of some public institutions and local groups that were insufficiently included in the formal response. In turn, Sierra Leone was left somewhat vulnerable to future crises. This concurrent positive and negative effect—a paradox this thesis terms the ‘political economy of expedience’—is one in which all civilian and military ERWs were implicated. However, the militarised response also provides lessons for how hierarchical spaces need not be exclusionary ones. Indeed, this thesis ultimately finds that when organised with ‘conflict attenuation’ in mind, hierarchy and decentralisation—and therein, localisation and inclusivity—can be co-dependent and synergistic principles that, if applied robustly, could serve to mitigate the political economy of expedience paradox during future public health emergency responses