Governing through disaster

Abstract

How do we maintain democracy through a crisis? In this chapter we argue that finding ways to maintain democratic values of inclusivity, transparency and accountability when making decisions in a crisis is a political challenge that will dominate this century. Evaluating how democracies respond to disruption is an important task. Aotearoa New Zealand, like all countries, will face more disruptive events, including pandemics, and severe local weather events (e.g. droughts or floods) associated with a changing global climate. In this chapter, we discuss how more democratic responses can make New Zealand society less vulnerable to disruption in the long term. We also evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the ways that the New Zealand government, local leaders and communities have responded to three crises: the Canterbury earthquake events of September 2010 and February 2011, the terror attacks on Christchurch mosques on 15 March 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic response of 2020.