ABSTRACT

This article is aimed at analysing local and intergovernmental responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany during the ‘first wave’ of the pandemic. It will answer the question of how the intergovernmental system in Germany responded to the crisis and to what extent the pandemic has changed patterns of multi-level governance (MLG). The article argues that the coordination of pandemic management in Germany shifted between two ideal types of multi-level governance. While in the first phase of the pandemic the territorially defined multi-level system with the sub-national and local authorities as key actors of crisis management was predominant, in the second phase a more functional orientation with increased vertical coordination gained in importance. Later on, more reliance was given again on local decision-making. Based on this analysis, we will draw some preliminary conclusions on how effective MLG in Germany has been for coordinating pandemic management and point out the shortcomings.

摘要

本文旨在分析大流行“第一波”期间德国地方和政府间对 COVID-19 大流行的反应。它将回答德国政府间系统如何应对危机以及大流行在多大程度上改变了多层次治理 (MLG) 模式的问题。文章认为，德国流行病管理的协调在两种理想的多级治理类型之间转移。虽然在大流行的第一阶段，以地方和地方当局作为危机管理的主要参与者的地域界定的多层次系统占主导地位，但在第二阶段，具有更多功能的导向以及增加的纵向协调变得越来越重要。后来，更多地依赖地方决策。基于这一分析，