Governance, democracy and ethics in crisis decision making: The pandemic beyond

Bol

This volume brings together findings from rapid-response COVID-19 research that are linked by a focus on governance decisions, particularly the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ of decision-making during the pandemic. Contributors reflect on how the pandemic seems impossible to disentangle from issues of trust and accountability in power and authority. In Governance, democracy and ethics in crisis-decision-making, we reflect on what it means to govern ethically in a pandemic. The chapters explore a situation in which rational or epistemic framings of COVID-19, focused on data and scientific ways of knowing the world, rub up against the way people experienced the pandemic as an unexpected, and often harmful, event in their own lives. The book brings together findings from research teams who have scrutinised legislation and guidance issued during the pandemic. In their exploration of decision-making processes from the everyday to the global, the contributors consider whether and how values have featured in decision-making, and sometimes why they have not. Exploring issues ranging from the authority of the World Health Organization and the power of data during an emergency, to the role of public engagement as a source of policy evidence, contributors consider whether (and how) the expected standards and norms of public life and decision-making should be different in times of crisis. The answers to the questions discussed in this book will be vital in reviewing our experiences of emergency decision-making. Now that we have emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, the essential lessons drawn out in this book should direct and constrain future decision-makers in both ordinary times and extraordinary emergencies. This book is a powerful addition to a developing literature informed by arts and humanities research carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Investigating the impacts of crisis governance and decision-making on people and populations, the book brings together microbial organisms and humans, children and data, decision-making and infection prevention, publics and process, global vaccine distribution and citizens’ juries. Through its eight chapters, the book stimulates broadly-drawn discussions about exceptional executive powers in an emergency, the role of trust, and the importance of the principles of good governance – such as selflessness, ethics, integrity, accountability and honesty in leadership. The lessons drawn out in this book will support future decision-makers in both ordinary times and extra-ordinary emergencies.An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY) licence.

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Pagina's: 232, Hardcover, Manchester University Press