The Frictions of Cooperative Federalism in the Covid-19 Crisis

Abstract

This article is to discuss aspects related to the weakness of vertical coordination and its implications for federative dialogue, when addressing the Covid-19 crisis. The theoretical argument was guided by the debate around federalism and coordination, emphasizing, at times, health policy, as a way of approaching the analyzed facts. The elements of this fragility are expressed in the speeches of governments and other important actors, emphasizing how such episodes constitute a fracture, even if momentary, in the relations between the central government and the states. In addition to that, the institutional measures that showed this persistent tension between the central government and the sub-national governments, facing the Covid-19 crisis. It is understood that the analysis of an ongoing process, the article captured only a sequence of events, which must have new elements of tension, until the country passes the most acute phase of the Corona virus crisis.