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Crisis Governance in Combating Pandemics : MERS and COVID-19

팬데믹 대응과 위기거버넌스 : 메르스와 코로나19 사례를 중심으로

초록/요약 도움말

In 2015, South Korea was faced with an unexpected pandemic, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS). Although the total number of confirmed cases was relatively low (186 cases), its death rate was alarming 20.4%. Struck by the sudden crisis, South Korea made efforts to contain the spread of the virus. Fast forwarding to 2020, South Korea faced yet another pandemic, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Was South Korea able to improve its response to the new crisis? In this study, I compare Park Geun-hye administration’s combat against MERS and Moon Jae-in administration’s combat against COVID-19 focusing on crisis governance characteristics. Findings show that Park administration’s crisis management system during MERS illustrates republican governance traits while Moon administration adopted participatory-democratic governance during the initial phase of COVID-19. However, as COVID-19 crisis became more serious, Moon administration resorted to incorporating anti-elite and anti-expert populist politics, resulting in deep conflicts with the medical experts.

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