Iranian Government’s Responses to the Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19): An Empirical Analysis

ABSTRACT

The fight against COVID-19 has become a primary concern of all effected countries worldwide. Governments are considered as the primary custodians of “crisismanship” (governance, administration, operations) in these countries. Undergoing the most severe economic sanctions imposed by the United States directly and indirectly for the last three years, Iran has been waging a full-scale war with enormous challenges at two fronts: (1) against the unprecedented economic sanctions, and (2) against this historical Pandemic of the 21^st century. This study addresses the second and aims to investigate and prioritize the factors affecting the path of struggle against the Pandemic. The study utilizes an exploratory mixed method for analysis of data and information in two phases. In the first phase of the study, we used a qualitative content analysis design, whereas in the next phase we surveyed the importance of the nine factors derived from among 360 Iranian citizens. The results of the study show nine main factors, with sub-factors or activities, presented in two parts, of which the part one presented here focusing on the first five factors: These include the (1) centralized command leadership, (2) citizen-centered handling of COVID-19, that is a fully engaged citizen participation, (3) having a strong and committed health care system armed with an advanced medical science system, (4) the combined centralized-decentralized governance approach to fighting the COVID-19, and (5) and participation of Iranian military forces in the government’s fight against COVID-19. A combination of “reactive” response systems [producing indigenous treatment drugs] and “proactive” strategies of domestically produced multiple Vaccines, as well as mass mobilization with a “resilient” policy of “Surprise Management theory-in-use” have helped the government and people of Iran in fighting the Covid-19 Pandemic crisis, especially under the most severe and illegal economic (including pharmaceutical) sanctions under Donald Trump of the United States. We hope the implications of this study will be found for governance and public administration theory and practice in other countries.

KEYWORDS:

• Crisismanship
• COVID-19
• crisis governance
• crisis public administration
• government response
• surprise management

Notes

1. The authors have coined the term crisismanship to denote a concept that includes governance, administration, and operational activities to deal with the COVID-19 as a crisis. In other words, crisismanship refers to “the science and art of linking crisis governance, crisis public administration, and operational activities at the time of crisis for the fight against COVID-19.

2. The authors coined the term “contagion of indifference” for the first time.