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What has happened and what has not happened due to the coronavirus disease pandemic: a systemic perspective on policy change
[Punctuated equilibrium in comparative perspective]

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  • Christoph Knill
  • Yves Steinebach

Abstract

The societal and policy transformations associated with the coronavirus disease pandemic are currently subject of intense academic debate. In this paper, we contribute to this debate by adopting a systemic perspective on policy change, shedding light on the hidden and indirect crisis effects. Based on a comprehensive analysis of policy agenda developments in Germany, we find that the pandemic led to profound shifts in political attention across policy areas. We demonstrate that these agenda gains and losses per policy area vary by the extent to which the respective areas can be presented as relevant in managing the coronavirus disease crisis and its repercussions. Moreover, relying on the analysis of past four economic crises, we also find that there is limited potential for catching up dynamics after the crisis is over. Policy areas that lost agenda share during crisis are unlikely to make up for these losses by strong attention gains once the crisis is over. Crises have hence substantial, long-term and so far, neglected effects on policymaking in modern democracies.

Suggested Citation

  • Christoph Knill & Yves Steinebach, 2022. "What has happened and what has not happened due to the coronavirus disease pandemic: a systemic perspective on policy change [Punctuated equilibrium in comparative perspective]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(1), pages 25-39.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:polsoc:v:41:y:2022:i:1:p:25-39.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/polsoc/puab008
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    5. Frank R. Baumgartner & Christian Breunig & Christoffer Green‐Pedersen & Bryan D. Jones & Peter B. Mortensen & Michiel Nuytemans & Stefaan Walgrave, 2009. "Punctuated Equilibrium in Comparative Perspective," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(3), pages 603-620, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. John Hogan & Michael Howlett & Mary Murphy, 2022. "Re-thinking the coronavirus pandemic as a policy punctuation: COVID-19 as a path-clearing policy accelerator [Punctuating the equilibrium: An application of policy theory to COVID-19]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(1), pages 40-52.
    2. Azad Singh Bali & Alex Jingwei He & M Ramesh, 2022. "Health policy and COVID-19: path dependency and trajectory [Health care reform in Germany: Patchwork change within established governance structures]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(1), pages 83-95.

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