France and COVID-19: a centralized and bureaucratic crisis management vs reactive local institutions

Céline Du Boys (), Jean-Michel Eymeri-Douzans (), Christophe Alaux () and Khaled Saboune
Additional contact information
Céline Du Boys: CERGAM - Centre d'Études et de Recherche en Gestion d'Aix-Marseille - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - UTLN - Université de Toulon, AMU IMPGT - Institut de management public et de gouvernance territoriale - AMU - Aix Marseille Université
Christophe Alaux: CERGAM - Centre d'Études et de Recherche en Gestion d'Aix-Marseille - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - UTLN - Université de Toulon, AMU IMPGT - Institut de management public et de gouvernance territoriale - AMU - Aix Marseille Université
Khaled Saboune: CERGAM - Centre d'Études et de Recherche en Gestion d'Aix-Marseille - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - UTLN - Université de Toulon, AMU IMPGT - Institut de management public et de gouvernance territoriale - AMU - Aix Marseille Université

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: The pandemic hit France in a tense socio-political context ("yellow vests" social movement, difficult reform of the pension system, followed by municipal elections), while the country was not well prepared to manage pandemic crises because of major budget cuts in the last decade. The crisis also reveals some weaknesses of French public hospitals, with structurally overworked emergency services. Crisis management is very vertical, with a concentration of powers at the Top Executive, which adopts drastic measures of general confinement. At territorial level, the crisis is managed by prefects and Regional Health Agencies (ARS). The confinement is successful in cutting the "pick" of contaminations and avoiding the collapse of hospitals' emergencies. But a major undergoing issue has been the terrible shortage of masks and tests. It is worth noting the increasing involvement of quite agile local government authorities in the process of lockdown exit. It is also remarkable that the French Government has deployed a huge amount of hundreds of billions of euros in emergency subsidies and loans guarantees to prevent a crash of the economy.

Keywords: Impreparation; concentration of powers; drastic measures; agile local government; enduring shortage of masks and tests; huge economic rescue plan. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Paul Joyce, Fabienne Maron, Purshottama Sivanarain Reddy. Good Public Governance in a Global Pandemic, IIAS-IISA, 2020, IIAS Public Governance Series, 2931003026

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03541455

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().