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Fighting COVID ‐19 with Agility, Transparency, and Participation: Wicked Policy Problems and New Governance Challenges
Author(s) -
Moon M. Jae
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/puar.13214
Subject(s) - transparency (behavior) , agile software development , government (linguistics) , covid-19 , corporate governance , business , wicked problem , pandemic , political science , public relations , economics , law , infectious disease (medical specialty) , management , finance , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , disease , pathology
Governments are being put to the test as they struggle with the fast and wide spread of COVID‐19. This article discusses the compelling challenges posed by the COVID‐19 pandemic by examining how this wicked problem has been managed by the South Korean government with agile‐adaptive, transparent actions to mitigate the surge of COVID‐19. Unlike many Western countries, South Korea has been able to contain the spread of COVID‐19 without a harsh forced lockdown of the epicenter of the virus. This essay argues that an agile‐adaptive approach, a policy of transparency in communicating risk, and citizens’ voluntary cooperation are critical factors. It also suggests that the South Korean government learned costly lessons from the MERS failure of 2015. This essay suggests ways that Western countries can manage future wicked problems such as COVID‐19 without paying too much cost and maintaining quality of life in open and free societies.