The Politics of Duties during COVID-19

The document examines the 'politics of lockdown' in Norway, France, and the UK, arguing that the imposition of civic duties was an iterative process of negotiation rather than a simple application of law. While Norway and the UK primarily used existing legislation to enforce restrictions, France utilized a state-of-exception framework. The authors find that compliance relied on 'greater good' arguments and social trust, and that over time, governments shifted from universal mandates to disaggregated, regional, or group-specific duties to maintain public cooperation.

• Liberal democratic countries generally preferred integrating COVID-19 lockdown requirements into existing legislation rather than declaring formal states of emergency, though France was a notable exception.
• In Norway and the UK, governments relied heavily on pre-existing laws—such as the UK's Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 and Norway's Infection Control Act 1994—despite passing new temporary legislation like the Coronavirus Act and the Corona Act.
• Lockdowns in Western liberal democracies are characterized as 'policy-regimes' rather than 'states of exception' because they involved iterative policymaking and negotiations between the state and citizens regarding rights and duties.
• Compliance with lockdown measures was not solely enforced by law but was 'manufactured' through 'greater good' arguments, scientific rationales like 'flattening the curve', and existing levels of social trust.
• National political cultures influenced the response to lockdowns: Norway's social democratic tradition led to less pushback against government intervention, while in France, the norm of maintaining liberties made restrictions the exception.
• As the pandemic progressed, governments shifted from universal civic duties to disaggregated ones, using regional tier/color-coded systems and individualised health or vaccine passes.

APA

Reid-Henry, S., & Geissinger, A. (2023). The Politics of Duties during COVID-19. Peace Research Institute Oslo. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/0a8c9728-ec9e-4550-b96d-e98e664d674c/Reid-Henry and Geissinger - The Politics of Duties during COVID-19 PRIO Policy Brief 03-2023.pdf?inline=true

Chicago

Reid-Henry, Simon, and Audrey Geissinger. The Politics of Duties during COVID-19. Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2023. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/0a8c9728-ec9e-4550-b96d-e98e664d674c/Reid-Henry and Geissinger - The Politics of Duties during COVID-19 PRIO Policy Brief 03-2023.pdf?inline=true.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Reid-Henry |first1=Simon |last2=Geissinger |first2=Audrey |title=The Politics of Duties during COVID-19 |publisher=Peace Research Institute Oslo |date=March 2023 |url=https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/0a8c9728-ec9e-4550-b96d-e98e664d674c/Reid-Henry and Geissinger - The Politics of Duties during COVID-19 PRIO Policy Brief 03-2023.pdf?inline=true |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{reidhenry2023politics, author = {Reid-Henry, Simon and Geissinger, Audrey}, title = {{The Politics of Duties during COVID-19}}, institution = {Peace Research Institute Oslo}, year = {2023}, month = mar, url = {https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/0a8c9728-ec9e-4550-b96d-e98e664d674c/Reid-Henry and Geissinger - The Politics of Duties during COVID-19 PRIO Policy Brief 03-2023.pdf?inline=true}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }