What are the politics of the coronavirus pandemic?

This week, Julia, Lee, and James ask special guest Philip Rocco about the politics of public health emergencies. Philip is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Marquette University. Prof. Rocco’s research examines the political economy of policy expertise. He teaches courses on American politics, the policymaking process, and the politics of numbers. Prof. Rocco was formerly a postdoctoral associate at the University of Pittsburgh’s Health Policy Institute. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.

How is the design of our institutions shaping the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic? Are Congress and the president failing us? How should they behave differently? These are some of the questions we discuss with Philip on this week’s episode.

This episode is also available on Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher.

Show Notes

James cites Keith Whittington’s recent article in Reason - ”Can the Government Just Close My Favorite Bar?” - to highlight the different powers and responsibilities of the federal and state governments in public health emergencies. He also recommends listeners check out Ira Katznelson’s book, Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time, to learn more about the challenges our representative democracy faced in the 1930s.

Julia cites Michael Tesler’s recent Monkey Cage article - “Red states are finally starting to Google ‘coronavirus’” - to illuminate the differences in how states have responded to the pandemic.

And for curious listeners, Germany’s Protection Against Infection Act is Infektionsschutzgesetz auf Deutsch.