Assessment of Resilient Governance Capacity toward COVID-19 in Chinese Cities

Resilient governance is essential to coping with complicated emergencies such as COVID-19. Existing studies have explored the public health system's governance capacity and resilient issues. Although local governments play critical roles in responding to epidemics, few studies have examined the local government's resilient governance capacity. This study develops a conceptual framework to assess local government's resilient governance capacity toward epidemics from preparedness, awareness, response, learning, and coordination dimensions. Wuhan, Xi'an, Shijiazhuang, and Hangzhou were selected as cases to collect questionnaire survey data on local resilient governance capacity. The full-permutation polygon synthetic indicator method (FPPSI) is used to assess the performance of case cities. The study found that Hangzhou is ranked the highest, with Wuhan second, Xi'an third, and Shijiazhuang last in the comprehensive performance. Coordination is found vital for resilient governance. The governments have weaknesses in preparedness capacity, coordination capacity, and learning capacity. It is necessary to strengthen the balance between epidemic prevention and control and socioeconomic development. Comprehensive resilient governance strategies have also been proposed to guide governmental practice. This study can provide references for local governments to cope with future epidemic events.