Responses of Centralised and Decentralised Countries to COVID-19

the case of France and Sweden

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36399/GroundingsUG.15.140

Keywords:

COVID-19, Public Health, France, Sweden, Pandemic Response, Health Policy, Governance

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted global public health systems and economic frameworks. Many researchers have delved into these effects and widely discussed the ramifications. Building upon existing literature, this paper comparatively analyses the strategies adopted by France and Sweden in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak, emphasising the effectiveness and implications of the approaches undertaken by countries with centralised versus decentralised political systems to overcome COVID-19. Through comprehensive review of literature, news reports, and other sources, this study reveals psychological resistance and disdain towards COVID-19 vaccination among the populace under France’s centralised government system, alongside significant issues of “Tyranny of Experts” within Sweden’s decentralised governance framework.

References

Andersson, Staffan, Nicholas Aylott, and Johan Eriksson, “Democracy and Technocracy in Sweden’s Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Frontiers in Political Science 4 (May 2022). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2022.832518.

Askim, Jostein, and Tomas Bergström, “Between Lockdown and Calm Down. Comparing the COVID-19 Responses of Norway and Sweden.” Local Government Studies 48 (2) 2022, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2021.1964477.

Bajos, Nathalie, Alexis Spire, and Léna Silberzan. “The Social Specificities of Hostility toward Vaccination against Covid-19 in France.” Edited by Sanjay Kumar Singh Patel. PLOS ONE 17 (1), 2022. e0262192. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0262192.

Barbaroux, Adriaan, Laurie Benoit, Romain A Raymondie, and Isabelle Milhabet, “Nudging Health Care Workers towards a Flu Shot: Reminders Are Accepted but Not Necessarily Effective. A Randomized Controlled Study among Residents in General Practice in France.” Family Practice 38 (4), 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/fampra/cmab001.

Bokhari, Rabia, and Khurram Shahzad, “Explaining Resistance to the COVID-19 Preventive Measures: A Psychological Reactance Perspective.” Sustainability 14 (8), 2022, 4476. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084476.

Buigues, Pierre-André, and Elie Cohen, “The Failure of French Industrial Policy.” Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade 20 (2), 2020, 249–77. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10842-019-00325-0.

Bylund, Per L., and Mark D. Packard, “Separation of Power and Expertise: Evidence of the Tyranny of Experts in Sweden’s COVID-19 Responses.” Southern Economic Journal 87 (4), 2021. https://doi.org/10.1002/soej.12493.

Cambon, L., M. Schwarzinger, and F. Alla., “Increasing Acceptance of a Vaccination Program for Coronavirus Disease 2019 in France: A Challenge for One of the World’s Most Vaccine-Hesitant Countries.” Vaccine 40 (2), 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.11.023.

Chenchula, Santenna, Padmavathi Karunakaran, Sushil Sharma, and Madhavrao Chavan, “Current Evidence on Efficacy of COVID-19 Booster Dose Vaccination against the Omicron Variant: A Systematic Review.” Journal of Medical Virology 94 (7), 2022. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.27697.

Cole, Alistair, Stuart Fox, Romain Pasquier, and Ian Stafford, “Political Trust in France’s Multi-Level Government.” Journal of Trust Research 8 (1), 2018, 45–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/21515581.2018.1457534.

Davies, Gail, and Jacquelin Burgess, “Challenging the ‘View from Nowhere’: Citizen Reflections on Specialist Expertise in a Deliberative Process.” Health & Place 10 (4), 2004, 349–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2004.08.005.

Desson, Zachary, Emmi Weller, Peter McMeekin, and Mehdi Ammi, “An Analysis of the Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in France, Belgium, and Canada.” Health Policy and Technology 9 (4), 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hlpt.2020.09.002.

European Court of Human Rights, “Requests for Interim Measures from 672 Members of the French Fire Service Concerning the Law on the Management of the Public Health Crisis Fall Outside the Scope of Rule 39 of the Rules of Court.” Hudoc.echr.coe.int. August 24, 2021. https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng-press#%20.

FRANCE 24. “In Pictures: A Look Back, One Year after France Went into Lockdown.” France 24. March 17, 2021. https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210317-in-pictures-a-look-back-one-year-after-france-went-into-lockdown.

Gagneux-Brunon, Amandine, Elisabeth Botelho-Nevers, Marion Bonneton, Patrick Peretti-Watel, Pierre Verger, Odile Launay, and Jeremy K. Ward, “Public Opinion on a Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination Policy in France: A Cross Sectional Survey.” Clinical Microbiology and Infection 28 (3), 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmi.2021.10.016.

Gandré, Coralie, and Zeynep Or, “Transition Measures: Planning Services.”, April 2021. https://eurohealthobservatory.who.int/monitors/hsrm/all-updates/hsrm/france/transition-measures-planning-services.

Greer, Scott L., Sarah Rozenblum, Michelle Falkenbach, Olga Löblová, Holly Jarman, Noah Williams, and Matthias Wismar. “Centralising and Decentralising Governance in the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Politics of Credit and Blame.” Health Policy 126 (5), 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2022.03.004.

Hassenteufel, Patrick, “Handling the COVID-19 Crisis in France: Paradoxes of a Centralised State-Led Health System.” European Policy Analysis 6 (2), 2020, 170–79. https://doi.org/10.1002/epa2.1104.

Hortal, Alejandro, “Nudges: A Promising Behavioral Public Policy Tool to Reduce Vaccine Hesitancy.” Revista Brasileira de Políticas Públicas 12 (1), 2022. https://doi.org/10.5102/rbpp.v12i1.7993.

Kallemose, Thomas, Jeanette Wassar Kirk, Elin Karlsson, Ida Seing, Nina Þórný Stefánsdóttir, Karsten Vrangbæk, Ove Andersen, and Per Nilsen. 2023. “Political Trust in the Handling of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Survey in Denmark and Sweden.” BMC Global and Public Health 1 (1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s44263-023-00009-2.

Kuhlmann, Sabine, Mikael Hellström, Ulf Ramberg, and Renate Reiter, “Tracing Divergence in Crisis Governance: Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in France, Germany and Sweden Compared.” International Review of Administrative Sciences 87 (3), 2021: 002085232097935. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852320979359.

Laage-Thomsen, Jakob, and Søren Lund Frandsen, “Pandemic Preparedness Systems and Diverging COVID-19 Responses within Similar Public Health Regimes: A Comparative Study of Expert Perceptions of Pandemic Response in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.” Globalization and Health 18 (1), 2022. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-022-00799-4.

Larson, Heidi J., Alexandre de Figueiredo, Zhao Xiahong, William S. Schulz, Pierre Verger, Iain G. Johnston, Alex R. Cook, and Nick S. Jones, “The State of Vaccine Confidence 2016: Global Insights through a 67-Country Survey.” EBioMedicine 12 (October 2016), 295–301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2016.08.042.

Leeson, Peter T., and Louis Rouanet, “Externality and COVID-19.” Southern Economic Journal 87 (4), 2021. https://doi.org/10.1002/soej.12497.

Lindström, Martin, “The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Swedish Strategy: Epidemiology and Postmodernism.” SSM - Population Health 11 (August 2020), 100643. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100643.

MacDonald, Noni E., “Vaccine Hesitancy: Definition, Scope and Determinants.” Vaccine 33 (34), 2015, 4161–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2015.04.036.

Milkman, K. L., J. Beshears, J. J. Choi, D. Laibson, and B. C. Madrian, “Using Implementation Intentions Prompts to Enhance Influenza Vaccination Rates.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108 (26), 2011, 10415–20. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1103170108.

Murayama, Hiroshi, Yusuke Takagi, Hirokazu Tsuda, and Yuri Kato, “Applying Nudge to Public Health Policy: Practical Examples and Tips for Designing Nudge Interventions.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 20 (5), 2023: 3962. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20053962.

Nay, Olivier, Sophie Béjean, Daniel Benamouzig, Henri Bergeron, Patrick Castel, and Bruno Ventelou, “Achieving Universal Health Coverage in France: Policy Reforms and the Challenge of Inequalities.” The Lancet 387 (10034), 2016: 2236–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(16)00580-8.

Or, Zeynep, Coralie Gandré, Isabelle Durand Zaleski, and Monika Steffen, “France’s Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic: Between a Rock and a Hard Place.” Health Economics, Policy and Law 17 (1), 2021, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1744133121000165.

Our World in Data, “Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccinations - Statistics and Research.” Our World in Data. 2023. https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations.

Petridou, Evangelia, “Politics and Administration in Times of Crisis: Explaining the Swedish Response to the COVID-19 Crisis.” European Policy Analysis 6 (2), 2020. https://doi.org/10.1002/epa2.1095.

Petridou, Evangelia, and Nikolaos Zahariadis, “Staying at Home or Going Out? Leadership Response to the COVID-19 Crisis in Greece and Sweden.” Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, (January 2021). https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5973.12344.

Pierre, Jon, “Nudges against Pandemics: Sweden’s COVID-19 Containment Strategy in Perspective.” Policy and Society 39 (3), 2020, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/14494035.2020.1783787.

Simonet, Daniel, “Centralisation of Health Policy Decisions, Conversion to Austerity, and Public Defiance in Contemporary France.” Journal of Public Affairs, (March 2021). https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2634.

Thaler, Richard H, and Cass R Sunstein, Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness, New York: Penguin Books, 2008.

The Public Health Agency of Sweden, “Our Mission - the Public Health Agency of Sweden.”, www.folkhalsomyndigheten.se. March 14, 2023. https://www.folkhalsomyndigheten.se/the-public-health-agency-of-sweden/about-us/our-mission/.

The World Bank, “Current Health Expenditure (% of GDP)|Data.” Worldbank.org. April 7, 2023. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.GD.ZS.

Vampa, Davide, “COVID-19 and Territorial Policy Dynamics in Western Europe: Comparing France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom.” Publius: The Journal of Federalism 51 (4), 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/publius/pjab017.

Vinceti, Silvio Roberto, “COVID-19 Compulsory Vaccination and the European Court of Human Rights.” Acta Bio-Medica : Atenei Parmensis 92 (S6), 2021: e2021472. https://doi.org/10.23750/abm.v92iS6.12333.

Visual, F. T., and Data Journalism team. “Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker: The Global Race to Vaccinate.” Ig.ft.com. December 23, 2022. https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker/?areas=gbr&areas=isr&areas=usa&areas=eue&areas=are&areas=chn&areas=chl&cumulative=1&doses=total&populationAdjusted=1.

Vogel, Gretchen, “‘It’s Been So, so Surreal.’ Critics of Sweden’s Lax Pandemic Policies Face Fierce Backlash.” www.science.org. October 6, 2020. https://www.science.org/content/article/it-s-been-so-so-surreal-critics-sweden-s-lax-pandemic-policies-face-fierce-backlash.

Ward, Jeremy K., Caroline Alleaume, Patrick Peretti-Watel, Patrick Peretti-Watel, Valérie Seror, Sébastien Cortaredona, Odile Launay, et al., “The French Public’s Attitudes to a Future COVID-19 Vaccine: The Politicization of a Public Health Issue.”, Social Science & Medicine 265 (November 2020): 113414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113414.

Wei, Zichun, Jiarui He, Conghui Wang, Jiaqi Bao, Taiyang Leng, and Fei Chen, “The Importance of Booster Vaccination in the Context of Omicron Wave.” Frontiers in Immunology 13 (September 2022). https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.977972.

Winblad, Ulrika, Anna-Karin Swenning, and Douglas Spangler, “Soft Law and Individual Responsibility: A Review of the Swedish Policy Response to COVID-19.” Health Economics, Policy and Law 17 (1), 2021, 48–61. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1744133121000256.

Downloads

Published

2024-05-15

Issue

Section

Vol. XV Articles

How to Cite

Responses of Centralised and Decentralised Countries to COVID-19: the case of France and Sweden. (2024). Groundings Undergraduate Journal, 15, 231-255. https://doi.org/10.36399/GroundingsUG.15.140