The Politics of Policy Responses to COVID-19 in Canada and the United States

In the social policy and health care literature, it is common to compare Canada and the United States, these 'unidentical twins' that have so much in common and yet that are so different from each another in areas like health care and political institutions.

How have these two “unidentical twins” responded to COVID-19 and how have political and institutional factors shaped their distinct policy responses to the crisis? Focusing on intergovernmental relations and the role of the federal government, this talk explains why partisan politics weakened key policy responses to COVID-19 in the United States but not in Canada.     

Biography

Daniel Béland is Director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada and James McGill Professor in the Department of Political Science at McGill University. He currently serves as Executive Editor of the Journal of Comparative Public Policy, Editor (French) of the Canadian Journal of Sociology, and President of Research Committee 19 (Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy) of the International Sociological Association. A student of social and fiscal policy, he has published 20 books and more than 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals.