Dynamic regulatory governance amidst infectious diseases: analyzing agile responses and regulatory shifts in health and welfare policy

ABSTRACT

This article conducts a comparative analysis of the South Korean government’s responses to COVID-19, examining its initial actions and contrasting them with measures taken during other pandemics (e.g., swine flu) and endemics (e.g., SARS and MERS) that significantly impacted the population in the past two decades. The study is grounded in the premise that, particularly during national crises like infectious disease outbreaks, governments face heightened expectations to provide well-founded rationales for their regulatory decisions. Employing the grounded-theory method, our findings reveal an increased diversification of values and rationales in government regulation during the COVID-19 period. This emphasises an agile approach to regulations, recognising the crucial role of civic consent and cooperation alongside government measures, thereby upholding liberal democratic values. The insights shed light on the state’s role in inclusive governance, advocating for a comprehensive and adaptive approach to policy development.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• pandemic
• endemic
• agility
• health policy
• welfare policy

Acknowledgements

I wish to extend my sincere appreciation to the anonymous reviewers and, notably, Co-Editor-in-Chief Prof. James L. Perry, for offering invaluable feedback that significantly improved the quality of this article. I would also like to express gratitude to Yeonu Son and Jihyun Ham for their contributions during the initial stages of the research. Any remaining errors are solely my responsibility.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/23276665.2024.2325115

Notes

1. We acknowledge that the convention of using the unhyphenated phrase “grounded theory (method)” is prevalent. However, in alignment with the insightful suggestion from one of the reviewers, we recognise the grammatical nuances of the English language, favouring the hyphenation before nouns like “method” – hence our consistent use of “grounded-theory method” throughout the paper.

2. Infectious Disease Portal (Korea Disease Control and Prevention). Retrieved January 11, 2024, from https://www.kdca.go.kr/npt/biz/npp/ist/simple/simplePdStatsMain.do

3. WHO. Summary of probable SARS cases with onset of illness from 1 November 2002 to 31 July 2003. Retrieved January 11, 2024, https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/summary-of-probable-sars-cases-with-onset-of-illness-from-1-november-2002-to-31-july-2003

4. Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). 09Influenza A (H1N1) epidemic. Retrieved January 11, 2024, from https://www.kdca.go.kr/contents.es?mid=a21104020000

5. WHO. MERS outbreak in the Republic of Korea, 2015. Retrieved January 11, 2024, from https://www.who.int/westernpacific/emergencies/2015-mers-outbreak

6. WHO. Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard. Retrieved January 11, 2024, from https://covid19.who.int/

7. Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). About KDCA. Retrieved January 11, 2024, from https://www.kdca.go.kr/contents.es?mid=a20804000000

8. Although the impact of infectious diseases may last beyond these chosen years, we restricted the analytic foci for the following reasons. First, at the time of conducting this research, there were no data available beyond 2020, which would be most relevant regarding COVID-19. To balance the analysis across four contagious diseases, we focus on the year of an outbreak and the following year. Second, we did not find any significant impact beyond the subsequent years from the other three diseases (i.e., SARS, swine flu, and MERS) based on sufficient data for the years following the outbreaks. That being said, the COVID-19 pandemic might have a long-lasting impact, unlike other pandemics and epidemics; if so, this would be an intriguing topic for future research.

9. SARS (37), swine flu (40), MERS (59), and COVID-19 (67).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Ministry of Education of Korea; National Research Foundation of Korea [2020S1A5A8044120].

Notes on contributors

Nara Park

Nara Park is an associate professor in the Department of Public Policy and Management at Yonsei University, South Korea. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago where she wrote the dissertation entitled, “The Nature of Japanese Governance: Seikai-Tensin’s Political Success in Postwar Japan, 1947–2014.”