Territorial differences in experiencing exogenous shocks and its impact on citizens’ attitudes towards the multilevel policy-making structure

This paper investigates the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on citizens’ attitudes towards the multilevel structure of governance in Norway. The study makes use of the quasi-experimental input of a global pandemic and contributes to the literature of exogenous shocks and territorial inequalities by analysing the effects of exposure to crises other than economic ones, which were commonly explored by previous studies. The pandemic, being an exogenous shock to the political system in general and to the day-to-day lives of individuals in particular, should have an effect on public opinion regarding the public policy-making process. I expect to observe that citizens who have had a more hands-on (or ‘intense’) involvement of local and regional tiers to become more aware of the multilevel aspect of the decision-making process and to prefer greater cooperation between different tiers of government in delivery of several public policies that are both directly and indirectly related to the pandemic. I also expect this shift in attitudes to be rather permanent (or at least long-lasting) and to be observable in the aftermath of the crisis. The case of Norway provides an excellent opportunity to test the above-mentioned hypotheses, as there was sufficient territorial variation regarding COVID-19 restrictions in place, both in terms of the quantity and the quality of the measures. Throughout 2021, it was possible for municipalities (and counties) to opt for local (and regional) restrictions that applied within their territories, in addition to nation-wide measures determined by the Norwegian government. For example, while Oslo municipality had 13 additional local restrictions as a result of high infection rates during the spring of 2021, Bergen municipality had only two additional local restrictions during the same period. The analysis, which includes more than 1,100 Norwegian citizens surveyed during Wave 22 of the Norwegian Citizen Panel in late 2021, reveals the impact of territorial differences in exposure to the crisis on citizens’ preferred tier(s) of government to provide a number of public policies such as healthcare (e.g., public health services, vaccination policies, patient transfer services, hospitals, etc.) and socioeconomic policies (e.g., local business policies, regional industrial policies, housing policies, etc.). The findings are important as they demonstrate the relationship between the severity of experiencing the crisis and the preferred/expected level of cooperation between subnational and national governments in the process of public policy-making. The results are also helpful for identifying potential spill-over effects in public opinion towards the provision and implementation of policies that are not directly affected by the COVID-19 crisis, especially in a country like Norway where economic discrepancies among regions are relatively low and the decision-making structure is relatively centralised.