The Management of Accountability: State Transformation and Class Politics in Scotlandâs COVID-19 Response

Ewan Kerr; James Foley

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Chapter 2 The Management of Accountability: State Transformation and Class Politics in Scotlandâs COVID-19 Response

In: The Organisation of Irresponsibility?

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Ewan Kerr

Ewan Kerr
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James Foley

James Foley
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 19â46

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004747784_003

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Abstract

The COVID-19 lockdowns stand as one of the most abrupt and consequential shifts in modern state-society relations, rivalling wartime disruptions. A key puzzle of this period is the convergence of policy responses despite the rise of multi-level governance, which has diffused power and sovereignty. This chapter explores the politics of pandemic management within Scotlandâs devolved relationship with the United Kingdom. Drawing on interviews with governance officials and civil society actors and analysis of devolved policy documents, it demonstrates that although the responses of Holyrood and Westminster differed in presentation, they shared substantial similarities in their interventions and outcomes. The chapter argues that these stylistic differences served to manage class-based grievances and exemplify the âmanagement of accountabilityâ â a strategy that enables the organisation of irresponsibility. What emerges is a story of the dysfunctional tension between levels of multi-level governance, in which constitutionalised politics were focused upon superficial conflicts over scale and jurisdiction, and functioned to depoliticise underlying questions of social inequality. The Scottish Governmentâs discursive focus on resilience aimed to reconcile a persistent climate of emergency with the stability of socio-political structures and systems, while also mitigating class-related grievances. The surface-level political story of the pandemic in Scotland would, therefore, centre on national, rather than class, conflicts embodied in the multi-level state.

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The Organisation of Irresponsibility?

Reassessing COVID-19 in Europe

Series:Â Studies in Critical Social Sciences, Volume: 347

Cover The Organisation of Irresponsibility?

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004747784

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 20 Nov 2025

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Chapter 2 The Management of Accountability: State Transformation and Class Politics in Scotlandâs COVID-19 Response

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The Organisation of Irresponsibility?

Reassessing COVID-19 in Europe

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Chapter 2 The Management of Accountability: State Transformation and Class Politics in Scotlandâs COVID-19 Response