This article compares and constrasts the responses of Australia, Canada, Germany, and the United States to the COVID-19 outbreak and spread. The pandemic has posed special challenges to these federal systems. Although federal systems typically have many advantages—they can adapt policies to local conditions, for example, and experiment with different solutions to problems—pandemics and people cross regional borders, and controlling contagion requires a great deal of national coordination and intergovernmental cooperation. The four federal systems vary in their relative distribution of powers between regional and national governments, in the way that health care is administered, and in the variation in policies across regions. We focus on the early responses to COVID-19, from January through early May 2020. Three of these countries—Australia, Canada, and Germany—have done well in the crisis. They have acted quickly, done extensive testing and contact tracing, and had a relatively uniform set of policies across the country. The United States, in contrast, has had a disastrous response, wasting months at the start of the virus outbreak, with limited testing, poor intergovernmental cooperation, and widely divergent policies across the states and even within some states. The article seeks to explain both the relative uniform responses of these three very different federal systems, and the sharply divergent response of the United States.

中文翻译：

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瘟疫时期的联邦制：联邦系统如何应对大流行

本文比较和对比了澳大利亚、加拿大、德国和美国对 COVID-19 爆发和传播的反应。大流行对这些联邦系统构成了特殊挑战。尽管联邦系统通常有很多优势——例如，它们可以根据当地情况调整政策，并尝试不同的解决方案——流行病和人们跨越区域边界，控制传染需要大量的国家协调和政府间合作。四个联邦体系在地区和国家政府之间的相对权力分配、医疗保健的管理方式以及跨地区政策的差异方面各不相同。我们专注于 2020 年 1 月至 5 月初对 COVID-19 的早期响应。其中三个国家——澳大利亚、加拿大和德国——在危机中做得很好。他们行动迅速，进行了广泛的测试和接触者追踪，并在全国范围内制定了一套相对统一的政策。相比之下，美国的应对措施是灾难性的，在病毒爆发初期浪费了几个月的时间，检测有限，政府间合作不力，各州甚至一些州内部的政策大相径庭。这篇文章试图解释这三个截然不同的联邦体系的相对统一的反应，以及美国截然不同的反应。在病毒爆发开始时浪费了几个月，测试有限，政府间合作不力，各州甚至一些州内部的政策也大相径庭。这篇文章试图解释这三个截然不同的联邦体系的相对统一的反应，以及美国截然不同的反应。在病毒爆发开始时浪费了几个月，测试有限，政府间合作不力，各州甚至一些州内部的政策也大相径庭。这篇文章试图解释这三个截然不同的联邦体系的相对统一的反应，以及美国截然不同的反应。