This article provides a conceptual framework for the analysis of COVID-19 crisis governance in the first half of 2020 from a cross-country comparative perspective. It focuses on the issue of opportunity management, that is, how the crisis was used by relevant actors of distinctly different administrative cultures as a window of opportunity. We started from an overall interest in the factors that have influenced the national politics of crisis management to answer the question of whether and how political and administrative actors in various countries have used the crisis as an opportunity to facilitate, accelerate or prevent changes in institutional settings. The objective is to study the institutional settings and governance structures, (alleged) solutions and remedies, and constellations of actors and preferences that have influenced the mode of crisis and opportunity management. Finally, the article summarizes some major comparative findings drawn from the country studies of this Special Issue, focusing on similarities and differences in crisis responses and patterns of opportunity management.

Points for practitioners

With crises emerging in ever shorter sequences of time, governing turbulence and using crises for strategic institutional decisions has become an increasingly important issue for policymakers. Aiming at effective and proportionate responses, policymakers must take the institutional conditions, administrative traditions and relevant actor constellations of crisis management into account, which are key to learn from other countries’ experiences. Comparing these experiences and analyzing the politics of crisis governance from a cross-country perspective may help policymakers to identify strengths and weaknesses of their own national/regional approaches and to seize crisis-related windows of opportunity for institutional reforms at the national and international levels.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19大流行的机会管理：从全球角度测试危机

本文提供了一个从跨国比较角度分析2020年上半年COVID-19危机治理的概念框架。它着重于机会管理的问题，即，不同的行政文化的相关参与者如何利用危机作为机会的窗口。我们从对影响危机管理的国家政治的因素的整体兴趣出发，来回答以下问题：各国的政治和行政行为者是否以及如何利用危机作为促进，加速或防止机构环境变化的机会。目的是研究机构设置和治理结构，（指定的）解决方案和补救措施，以及影响危机和机会管理模式的参与者和偏好群体。最后，本文总结了从本期特刊的国别研究中得出的一些主要比较结果，重点是危机应对和机会管理模式的异同。

从业人员要点

随着危机在越来越短的时间内出现，治理动荡并利用危机进行战略性机构决策已成为决策者越来越重要的问题。为了采取有效和相称的应对措施，决策者必须考虑到危机管理的体制条件，行政传统和相关行为者群，这是从其他国家的经验中学习的关键。比较这些经验并从跨国角度分析危机治理的政治，可能有助于决策者确定其本国/地区方法的优缺点，并抓住危机相关的机会之窗，在国家和国际一级进行体制改革。