Retraction Note: A Discourse Analysis of Quotidian Expressions of Nationalism during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Chinese Cyberspace

Journal of Chinese Political Science -     

The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Nationalist Emulation during the COVID-19 Pandemic

As COVID-19 rapidly spread across the globe, every government in the world has been forced to enact policies to slow the spread of the virus. While leaders often claim responses are based on the best available advice from scientists and public health experts, recent policy diffusion research suggests that countries are emulating the COVID-19 policies of their neighbors instead of responding to domestic conditions. Political and geographic considerations play a role in determining which countries imitate one another, but even among countries that are politically or geographically distant, nationalist regimes seem to favor certain approaches towards the pandemic. We investigate why this is the case by examining whether countries that embrace a nationalist ideology are more likely to emulate the COVID-19 policies of similarly nationalist regimes. We demonstrate that, even after controlling for domestic circumstances and linguistic, trade, geographic, and political connections, nationalist countries are emulating each other’s responses. These results are robust and shed light not only on new mechanisms of policy diffusion but also on the growing international cooperation of nationalist regimes and leaders.

     

Collective Bargaining during Times of Crisis: Recommendations from the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed employment across sectors in 2020. This Viewpoint essay examines public sector labor relations during the pandemic and describes the impact bargaining process that is used to protect public employees. The authors draw on their own experience with impact bargaining negotiations and the public labor relations, conflict management, and civil service reform literatures to develop recommendations for public union labor leaders during times of crisis. They suggest that public unions have an important role in crisis management but must act strategically to develop good working relationships with leadership and successfully negotiate employee protections in uncertain times.     

Many Nationalisms,One Disaster: Categories,Attitudes and Evolution of Chinese Nationalism on Social Media during the COVID -19 Pandemic

Journal of Chinese Political Science - Previous research has shown the increase of Chinese nationalism in some international events. However, it is unclear how a specific event fosters the rise of...     

Policy capacity during COVID-19 in Asia: A systematic literature review

COVID-19 has revealed the policy capacity of some governance institutions, both resilience and vulnerability. Hence, this circumstance has demanded public administration scholars and practitioners to rethink the existing governance practices, particularly in making effective crisis-related policies. This paper reviewed primary and secondary studies exploring the application of policy capacity competencies in facilitating COVID-19 handling in Asia. In achieving so, we did a systematic literature review of relevant studies published between January and October 2020. Applying the agreed search term to several databases, we found 2541 studies, while merely 30 were included for review. Findings from the studies are predominantly closely linked to operational capacity (n = 21). Other studies are related to political and analytical capacity (n = 14 and 7, retrospectively). We found that there are some dilemmas and inadequacy of understanding concerning the role of features in certain capacities (such as technology use versus individual privacy, the paradox of trust and legitimacy, or centralisation versus decentralisation), particularly in the time of crisis, which is a calling for future research.     

当代时空压缩背景下新冠疫情的社会特征及治理策略选择

自2019年年底暴发并延续至今的新冠疫情,并非偶发性的自然事件,而是内源于当代社会并造成重大全球性灾难的社会事件。时空压缩既是当代社会时空结构特征的凝练表达,也是新冠疫情发生的基本场域,准确把握新冠疫情的本质离不开时空压缩这一重要背景。一方面,新冠疫情的发生始终处于当代时空结构中,它在暴发、传播以及治理过程中表现出的社会特征,是新冠病毒的自然属性与时空压缩社会特征遭遇和碰撞的产物;另一方面,新冠疫情的社会特征不仅突显出时空压缩背景下当代社会的高风险性和脆弱性,而且打破了人们对资本逻辑支配下时空压缩破坏性后果盲目乐观的迷思。遏制新冠疫情蔓延的关键是准确界定当代时空压缩背景下新冠疫情的社会特征,并采取有针对性的治理策略。     

The Struggle for Certainty: Ontological Security,the Rise of Nationalism,and Australia-China Tensions after COVID-19

Journal of Chinese Political Science - Australia-China relations have been relatively stable over the last decade. However, soon after the outbreak of COVID-19, Australia took an increasingly...     

Hybrid Coordination for Coping with the Medical Surge from the COVID-19 Pandemic: Paired Assistance Programs in China

The COVID-19 pandemic poses unprecedented challenges to public health care systems and demands intergovernmental coordination to cope with the resulting medical surge. This essay analyzes the operation of Paired Assistance Programs (PAPs) in China, offering a timely comparative case for researchers and practitioners to examine when reflecting on the classic debate over the hierarchical versus network approaches to coordination in emergency management. PAPs highlight the importance of network management and necessity of institutionalizing mechanisms of governance to facilitate coordination within multilevel response systems.     

确立并践行新理念是形式主义问题的治本之策——以新冠肺炎疫情防控为例

形式主义是个老大难问题,治理起来相当困难。在新冠肺炎疫情防控过程中,尤其是在初期和一些地方,形式主义问题不仅存在还比较严重。在防控疫情这一“准战时”状态下,形式主义问题危害性更大。形式主义问题的根源是官僚主义,而官僚主义的形成有体制和思想两个层面的原因。从这两个层面施治,都属于治本之策,其中思想或理念层面的引领尤为重要。党的十八大以来,习近平总书记倡导并形成了三大新理念,即问题导向、结果导向和民意导向。与新理念相对立的旧理念正是形式主义问题的思想根源。新理念不只是理念,还是一套行动指南。只要确立并践行新理念,就能有效抑制形式主义问题的滋生,从而起到重要的治本作用。     

The “Role” of Nationalism in Chinese Foreign Policy: A Reactive Model of Nationalism & Conflict

A growing literature has sought to address the question of Chinese nationalism, and particularly whether or not its rise over the last decade could make China more prone to international conflict. Yet these discussions have often not been well grounded in either theories of nationalism or international relations (IR) theory. This paper will seek to fill this gap by using a constructivist approach to examine how nationalism is constituted by the interaction of states. By doing so, it will be argued that Chinese nationalism can best be understood as a reactive response to international events rather than domestic political manipulation. Michael Alan Brittingham is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and International Studies at McDaniel College. He has previously taught at the University of Louisville. In 2005, he completed his dissertation entitled, “Reactive Nationalism and Its Prospects for Conflict: The Taiwan Issue, Sino-US Relations, & the ‘Role’ of Nationalism in Chinese Foreign Policy” in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh. His current research interests include international relations theory, Chinese foreign policy, and nationalism.     

Contagious COVID-19 policies: Policy diffusion during times of crisis

The COVID-19 crisis demanded rapid, widespread policy action. In response, nations turned to different forms of social distancing policies to reduce the spread of the virus. These policies were implemented globally, proving as contagious as the virus they are meant to prevent. Yet, variation in their implementation invites questions as to how and why countries adopt social distancing policies, and whether the causal mechanisms driving these policy adoptions are based on internal resources and problem conditions or other external factors such as conditions in other countries. We leverage daily changes in international social distancing policies to understand the impacts of problem characteristics, institutional and economic context, and peer effects on social distancing policy adoption. Using fixed-effects models on an international panel of daily data from 2020, we find that peer effects, particularly mimicry of geographic neighbors, political peers, and language agnates drive policy diffusion and shape countries' policy choices.     

COVID-19 Infodemic: A study on the Fragile Five countries

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many rumors and conspiracy theories spread in various media outlets. The purpose of this study is to reveal the nature of the misinformation detected by fact check platforms that spread in the Fragile Five countries. To determine the themes of misinformation about COVID-19 and from which media it is disseminated are a possible way to prevent it. The data of the study were obtained from International Fact-checking Network's CoronaVirusFacts database. One thousand seven hundred thirty-four piece of misinformation collected by web scraping method during the period January 24, 2020 to November 14, 2020 and analyzed with MAXQDA Analytics Pro 2020. As a result of the research, it was found that rumors (96.3%) spread more in the Fragile Five countries than conspiracy theories (3.7%). While the main theme of the rumors is about illness (26.9%) and diagnosis-treatment (25%), conspiracy theories are mostly related to the cause of the disease (68.8%). 53.06% of misinformation was spread through the Facebook platform. 15.32% on Twitter; 13.34% on WhatsApp. Misinformation has been heavily false (85.12%) in both rumor and conspiracy theories. In the second place, misleading (10.09%) news spread.     

Network of Networks: Preliminary Lessons from the Antwerp Port Authority on Crisis Management and Network Governance to Deal with the COVID-19 Pandemic

In this article, the authors describe and illustrate what they call a “network of networks” perspective and map the development of a lead network for the Antwerp Port Authority that governed organizations and networks in the port community before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. They find that setting a collective focus and selective integration are crucial in the creation and reproduction of an effective system to adequately deal with a wicked problem like the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings on crisis management and network governance are used to engage practitioners and public policy planners to revisit the current design and governance of organizational networks within organizational fields that have been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.     

Modeling teachers acceptance of learning management system in higher education during COVID-19 pandemic: A developing country perspective

The ubiquity of the World Wide Web has provided massive opportunities to teachers and learners around the globe to share knowledge anytime anywhere via learning management system. Hence, considering the needs of the students; universities have arranged the facilities of the learning management system. This study is an empirical evaluation of university faculty members' intention to use a learning management system. We extended Davis's (1989) Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to evaluate faculty members' intention to use learning management system amid COVID-19. Data were obtained from the faculty members of Pakistani universities through the convenience sampling technique and analyzed using PLS-SEM. The outcomes of the study revealed that perceived ease of using a learning management system, user-interface design, and faculty members' innovativeness have a favorable impact on their intention to use learning management system. Facilitating conditions positively influenced intention to use learning management system. However, the positive relationship between facilitating conditions and perceived ease of using the learning management system was insignificant. The results indicate that the extended TAM model has effectively predicted faculty members' intention to use the learning management system. The findings of the current study can be used for the training and development of faculty members by institutions and regulatory bodies in developing countries.     

Challenges of working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic for women in the UAE

This study explored the experiences of working from home among women in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) during the lockdown. Adopting the interpretative philosophical approach, this study conducts semi-structured interviews with sixteen (16) randomly selected women actively employed in different sectors in the UAE economy. The analysis was carried out using the thematic analysis to derive the themes and sub-themes emerging from the coded data. The research finds that most of the challenges are associated with spillover from work, affecting family time, and invading personal space. The research concluded that women working remotely faced issues linked to glitches, malfunctions, and knowledge deficiencies. The third most identified challenge to working from home was the distractions that come with the conscious attempt to divide attention between work and family, trying to stop one from interfering with the other. However, the research observed some notable advantages including workplace flexibility and control, as well as the opportunity to work from the comfort of the home. The findings also revealed the mixed feelings to continue working from home and its impact on the career progression of women in the UAE.     

Disaster Resiliency of U.S. Local Governments: Insights to Strengthen Local Response and Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic

This research presents implications of the global pandemic for local government resiliency in the United States. The authors explore insights from local government officials and managers on the front lines of response and recovery efforts to the biological natural disaster. Findings from the latest nationwide survey of U.S. local governments regarding their preparedness for weather-related natural disasters also inform responses to the current crisis. Results indicate that local governments are innovating and taking strategic actions to fight the virus, even as COVID-19 has exposed social inequities that are exacerbated as the virus spreads. Survey findings of disaster readiness of local governments to weather-related disasters shows that small, resource-poor governments will not be able to respond well and social inequities will grow. Policy strategies at all levels of government must recognize and account for these inequities as threat of this virus subsides, to support stronger, more effective readiness for the next biological catastrophe.     

从公众话语走向政策话语:一项政策问题建构的话语分析

20世纪60年代以来,后实证主义逐渐兴起并演化成为一种潮流。与实证主义所强调的科学主义和工具理性所不同,后实证主义将价值多元和建构主义引入自己的视域。在这种背景下,话语模式也从以前的"实在论"转向"建构论",它要求人们以一种积极的姿态去感受、认知、体验和创建世界。在"建构论"视角下,公共政策的建构与传统的科学理性主义主导下自上而下的创设有所不同,它本质上是一种自下而上的话语建构过程,因此成为一项理解政策问题建构的新路径。那么,现实世界中公众话语是如何建构成为政策话语的?我们寻访了四个方面的理论线索:存在一个话语能量场、公众话语的演进过程、形成话语联盟以及话语自身的价值追求,在此基础上初步勾勒出政策问题话语建构的分析框架。     

The Effects of Governmental and Individual Predictors on COVID-19 Protective Behaviors in China: A Path Analysis Model

The COVID-19 pandemic has plunged the world into a crisis. To contain this crisis, it is essential to build full cooperation between the government and the public. However, it is unclear which governmental and individual factors are determinants and how they interact with protective behaviors against COVID-19. To resolve this issue, this study builds a multiple mediation model. Findings show that government emergency public information such as detailed pandemic information and positive risk communication had greater impact on protective behaviors than rumor refutation and supplies. Moreover, governmental factors may indirectly affect protective behaviors through individual factors such as perceived efficacy, positive emotions, and risk perception. These findings suggest that systematic intervention programs for governmental factors need to be integrated with individual factors to achieve effective prevention and control of COVID-19 among the public.     

The incidence and magnitude of the health costs of in-person schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic

Public Choice - The health costs of in-person schooling during the pandemic, if any, fall primarily on the families of students, largely owing to the fact that students significantly outnumber...