Multilevel governance and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic literature review

As the Covid-19 pandemic demanded coordinated action from governments at all levels, the role of federalism, decentralization, supranational authorities and other multilevel governance (MLG) institutions and processes in responses to it has come under much scholarly scrutiny. Three years on, much of this literature remains fragmented and in need of synthesis. In this systematic literature review we summarize the literature on the effects of MLG on governments' policy responses to Covid-19. We identified 114 contributions and synthesized their findings. While the literature reveals much about national, subnational and local responses, it remains limited by a narrow set of research methods, limited comparisons, and a lack of specificity regarding the government response studied. We conclude by proposing a research agenda that adopts comparative designs spanning both federal and non-federal countries, that clearly demarcates the scope of the government response studied, and that explores government responses in later stages of the pandemic.