Public Policy during COVID-19: Challenges for Public Administration and Policy Research in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

The authors of this text decided to prepare a short article, with the aim to induce further discussion and to orient ongoing and future research eff orts in Central and Eastern Europe but also worldwide. Th e article uses the method of a multi-country case study as the basis for proposing several critical research (and policy) challenges for our region – but many of them of a world-wide character. Four countries are covered by our thumbnail informative sketches – the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary and the Slovak Republic. Th e fi nal part of this article proposes a set of questions suggested by the CEE experience with COVID-19 for future research. Such research will both be necessary and interesting for scholarship and policy in the region, and – as a particularly interesting context and area – helpful, one hopes, for questions and answers globally, concerning the pandemic, as well as public administration and policy as a whole.