The COVID-19 pandemic has presented many challenges to governments around the world. The federal structure within the United States has further complicated effective responses to mitigate the personal and economic effects of COVID. Here, we argue that the Trump administration’s approach to federalism—highlighted by the pandemic—is incapable of efficiently and effectively addressing state needs and those needs are only going to grow as a result, further exacerbating the problem. This form of federalism, which we dub “transactional federalism,” is likely to have deleterious effects on state infrastructure, much of which is already in need. The long-term effects of transactional federalism are likely to weaken state efforts to address critical infrastructure needs.

中文翻译：

---

COVID-19 大流行给联邦制和基础设施带来的教训：行动呼吁

COVID-19 大流行给世界各国政府带来了许多挑战。美国境内的联邦结构使缓解 COVID 对个人和经济影响的有效应对措施进一步复杂化。在这里，我们认为，特朗普政府对联邦制的态度——以大流行为突出——无法有效地满足州需求，而这些需求只会因此而增长，进一步加剧问题。这种形式的联邦制，我们称之为“交易联邦制”，很可能对州基础设施产生有害影响，其中大部分已经处于需要状态。交易联邦制的长期影响可能会削弱州解决关键基础设施需求的努力。