Failing federalism? US dualist federalism and the 2020–22 pandemic

Abstract

Some accounts focus on the role of governmental systems in the management of the 2020–22 Coronavirus/Covid-19 pandemic. But studies with such an emphasis have typically taken second place to interpretations of outcomes in terms of cases and deaths based on cultural and demographic differences. In theory, federal systems would seem to have certain advantages in managing pandemics given the presumed ability to co-manage national challenges at the federal level (testing, vaccines, resources, etc.) with local differences in demography and behaviour at the state level. This paper argues that, in the case of the United States, its federal system was central to its failure in managing the pandemic. But rather than an indictment of federalism broadly construed, this was the result of a vision of federalism put into practice since the 1980s reflecting a strict division of powers between the states and the federal government. Rather than partners or collaborators with the federal government, the states became competitors with one another and with the federal government. This was the recipe for failure more than was federalism as such.