Contributor(s): Professor George Gerapetritis, Professor Bo Rothstein, Professor Amy Verdun | From strict lockdowns and school shutdowns to fostering self-responsibility, governments have taken different paths to fight the pandemic. Some of these differences seem consistent with different national traditions or cultural frames. Yet, governments have also achieved very different results in managing the pandemic that contradict images of government performance. What should we make of this? Are our stereotypes wrong?

At the same time, the economic impact of the pandemic seems to be transforming assumptions about fiscal discipline and the role of the state in the economy. Are we converging around a new activism for the state? Are we sharing a paradigmatic shift? Are north-south differences in Europe disappearing? What should we expect of our governments now?

George Gerapetritis is the Minister of State, Hellenic Republic. He is a Professor of Constitutional Law at the Faculty of Law of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He studied in Athens (LL.B.), Edinburgh (LL.M.) and Oxford (D.Phil), has been a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford and the Hellenic Observatory, LSE. He has taught European and comparative constitutional law and history in many universities worldwide. He has published 8 books and more than 100 articles in 3 languages.

Bo Rothstein holds the August Röhss Chair in Political Science at University of Gothenburg and is the co-founder of the Quality of Government (QoG) Institute at this department. Rothstein took his PhD in Political Science at Lund University (1986). Prior to the above appointment he worked a researcher at the Department of Government at Uppsala University. During 2016 and 2017 he served as Professor of Government and Public Policy at University of Oxford. 

Amy Verdun (@Amy_Verdun) is Professor in European Politics and Political Economy, Leiden University. Prior to this appointment she was for 21 years in the Department of Political Science of the University of Victoria (UVic), BC Canada where she was Full Professor since 2005. At UVic she served as Founder and Director of the European Studies Program (1997-2005); Graduate Advisor (2007-2009); and as Chair (Head) of the Department (2010-2013). Her research deals with European integration, governance and policy-making, political economy, as well as comparisons between the EU and Canada. 

Kevin Featherstone is Eleftherios Venizelos Professor in Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor in European Politics in the European Institute at LSE, where he is also Director of the Hellenic Observatory. He has held visiting positions at the University of Minnesota; New York University; Harvard University; and, the European University Institute (Firenze). Before LSE, he held academic posts at the Universities of Stirling and Bradford. 

This event in the series has been organised by the Hellenic Observatory.

The next event in this series will take place at 2pm on 1 July on COVID-19: the impact on the UK's ethnic minority populations.

The Hellenic Observatory (@HO_LSE) is internationally recognised as one of the premier research centres on contemporary Greece and Cyprus. It engages in a range of activities, including developing and supporting academic and policy-related research; organisation of conferences, seminars and workshops; academic exchange through visiting fellowships and internships; as well as teaching at the graduate level through LSE's European Institute.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECOVID19

A copy of Professor Amy Verdun's PowerPoint presentation is available for download: Governments in the Crisis: what do we expect from them? what do they expect from us?