ABSTRACT
Spain is the coordinated market economy with the highest number of Covid cases and the first European country to reach half a million cases. Spain’s experience in their first wave of Covid, from March through July 2020, provides insight into crisis response in a coordinated market economy (CME). Although CMEs have stronger welfare states and Spain provided strong protection for unions and workers through these institutions, the social concertation process does not include representation for Spain’s most vulnerable individuals. They are better represented through the social economy associations, which do not have institutionalized participation in social policy making. These organizations demanded participation, and some were able to collaborate with regional governments in planning responses to and recovery from Covid. The Spanish case demonstrates that a coordinated market economy can effectively develop a response incorporating the demands of the social partners that participate. Going beyond this, to provide better protection for the vulnerable is more likely if representatives of the third sector had a place at the table as well.
