The COVID-19 Pandemic and British Exceptionalism: Explaining Policy Failure

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic elicited a policy response from the UK government that may be described as “British exceptionalism”. The concept of exceptionalism here denotes a pattern of government decision-making (and non-decision-making) that diminished the efficacy of NPIs that would suppress the virus. This was detrimental to the cause of public health protection, leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths. The chief aspects of British exceptionalism were: (1) eschewal of border defence; (2) deferred lockdowns and fast-tracked re-openings; and (3) failure to encourage or mandate public mask-wearing. The paper will argue that these were attributable to the interface between neoliberalism and Brexit nationalism in the politics of the ruling party and the high degree of internationalization of the UK economy.



Author Information
Sean Creaven, University of the West of England, United Kingdom

Paper Information
Conference: ACSS2024
Stream: Politics

This paper is part of the ACSS2024 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Creaven S. (2024) The COVID-19 Pandemic and British Exceptionalism: Explaining Policy Failure ISSN: 2186-2303 – The Asian Conference on the Social Sciences 2024: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 547-558) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-2303.2024.47
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-2303.2024.47


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Posted by James Alexander Gordon