Covid 19:s Effects on Democracy : A Comparative Study on Sweden & Finland’s Crisis Management during Covid-19

Abstract At the present time no one is oblivious of Covid-19:s widely-spread effect on our society. States and governments all over the world were forced to take drastic decisions which in turn have had impacts on our democracy, freedom, lives and livelihood. The purpose of this study is to contribute to knowledge regarding the challenges democracy faces in the midst of a pandemic where restrictive measurements are enforced. Sweden and Finland had contrasting outcomes in their enforcement of measures during the crisis – despite the striking similarities between the two countries systems, democratic standards and values. What kind of democratic challenges do both countries face in the midst of a pandemic where restrictive measurements are enforced? And how do respective countries go about balancing their democratic values with certain undemocratic measurements? Both countries’ crisis management and measurements will be analyzed to see if their democratic challenges differ from a crisis management perspective. Furthermore, both countries’ approach regarding crisis management will be analyzed to see it there is a clear discrepancy. The material used was Finland’s memorandum regarding their state of emergency and Sweden’s memorandum regarding extension of the Covid-19-law along with the social committee report on a temporary Covid-19-law. By using Carol Bacchi’s WPR-approach both countries documents were analyzed, the study found similarities but mostly differences in which separate and similar problem’s were represented, which might explain why Sweden and Finland had contrasting outcomes on their decision-making and measures. Proposals for further studies is to research the long-term effects on the measures that were taken, expand to different levels of society for instance regions as well as municipalities, and lastly to study the potential long-term effects on the democratic standard that laws and restrictive measures might have