What’s Better in a Pandemic: Federalism or a Central State?
Germany is the latest federal country to contemplate centralizing its efforts against Covid-19. It should be careful with that.
Federalism ain’t easy. Just ask the governors.
Photographer: Fabrizio Bensch/AFP via Getty Images
The Covid-19 pandemic has rekindled old controversies, including the centuries-old debate about which form of government is better: a federal state or a unitary one. The latest to raise the issue, albeit obliquely, is German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Flustered by the perception that Germany, a federal republic of 16 states, seems to be floundering in managing SARS-CoV-2, she told a television interviewer that she’ll “have to think about how that might be dealt with federally in a uniform way.” What she has in mind is new public-health legislation that would let the feds seize certain powers from the states.