The UK and Covid-19

Tyler, Colin

Abstract

This chapter explores the institutional and ideological tensions that shape the United Kingdom (UK) government’s responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. The discussion is structured as follows. Section one presents the UK government’s response to the pandemic from January to early October 2020. Section two sketches the movement, post-1979, of the UK state from being a social democratic institution towards a competition state. Section three explores the attitudinal context of the current government’s response, by focusing on a powerful non-interventionist trend within contemporary centrist and right-wing UK political parties. The chapter concludes by highlighting the key lesson to be drawn from the government’s actions during the pandemic: namely, that institutions can reassert themselves against and even within a formerly populist government.

Citation

Tyler, C. (2021). The UK and Covid-19. In J. N. Pieterse, H. Lim, & H. Khondker (Eds.), Covid-19 and Governance: Crisis Reveals (125-138). Abingdon: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)

• Acceptance Date: Mar 1, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Jun 11, 2021
• Publication Date: Jun 11, 2021
• Deposit Date: Mar 25, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 12, 2022
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Pages: 125-138
• Book Title: Covid-19 and Governance: Crisis Reveals
• Chapter Number: 10
• ISBN: 9780367722517 ; 9780367722500
• Keywords: Covid-19; Pandemic; Competition state; Social welfare; NHS
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3744703
• Publisher URL: https://www.routledge.com/Covid-19-and-Governance-Crisis-Reveals/Pieterse-Lim-Khondker/p/book/9780367722517
• Additional Information: Editors: Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Haeran Lim, Habibul Khondker,