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. 2020 Jun 25;39(3):326-344.
doi: 10.1080/14494035.2020.1783790. eCollection 2020 Sep.

Policy design and state capacity in the COVID-19 emergency in Italy: if you are not prepared for the (un)expected, you can be only what you already are

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Policy design and state capacity in the COVID-19 emergency in Italy: if you are not prepared for the (un)expected, you can be only what you already are

Giliberto Capano. Policy Soc. .

Abstract

Italy was the first large epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Western world. Since the country has not had any serious experience with this kind of disease in recent decades, its response has been indicative of a first reaction to an (un)known and (un)expected event. At the same time, the Italian experience is an emblematic case of how a lack of specific preparedness measures drives a country to deal with this kind of crisis through a process in which the existing characteristics of the policy and political system, with all their pros and cons, prevail. This means that the existing country characteristics that affects policy design, state capacity, institutional arrangements and political games forge the process and content of the response. Based on this observation, this paper analyses the policy dynamics of the first four months of management of the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy, focusing on how the health and economic responses were designed and implemented.

Keywords: COVID-19; Italy; experts; path dependency; policy design; policy style; state capacity.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Timing and content of the main mitigation decisions at the national level (lockdown and reopening processes).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Measures approved by national authorities for mitigating COVID-19 and for recovering from its socio-economic effects.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Daily trend of the pandemic in Italy (20 February–31 May 2020).

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