The management of accountability: state transformation and class politics in Scotland’s COVID-19 response: reassessing COVID-19 in Europe

Abstract

The COVID-19 lockdowns stand as one of the most abrupt and consequential shifts in modern state-society relations, rivalling wartime disruptions. A key puzzle of this period is the convergence of policy responses despite the rise of multi-level governance, which has diffused power and sovereignty. This chapter explores the politics of pandemic management within Scotland’s devolved relationship with the United Kingdom. Drawing on interviews with governance officials and civil society actors and analysis of devolved policy documents, it demonstrates that although the responses of Holyrood and Westminster differed in presentation, they shared substantial similarities in their interventions and outcomes. The chapter argues that these stylistic differences served to manage class-based grievances and exemplify the “management of accountability” – a strategy that enables the organisation of irresponsibility. What emerges is a story of the dysfunctional tension between levels of multi-level governance, in which constitutionalised politics were focused upon superficial conflicts over scale and jurisdiction, and functioned to depoliticise underlying questions of social inequality. The Scottish Government’s discursive focus on resilience aimed to reconcile a persistent climate of emergency with the stability of socio-political structures and systems, while also mitigating class-related grievances. The surface-level political story of the pandemic in Scotland would, therefore, centre on national, rather than class, conflicts embodied in the multi-level state.

Rights

This content is not covered by the Open Government Licence. Please see source record or item for information on rights and permissions.

Cite as

Downloadable citations

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004747784_003

Repository URI

https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/373347/