The comparative politics of COVID-19: The need to understand government responses.
TL;DR: A research agenda to address the COVID-19 pandemic that takes politics as a serious focus can enable the development of more realistic, sustainable interventions in policies and shape the broader understanding of the politics of public health.
Abstract: COVID-19 has created a ramifying public health, economic, and political crisis throughout many countries in the world While globally the pandemic is at different stages and far from under control in some countries, now is the time for public health researchers and political scientists to start understanding how and why governments responded the way they have, explore how effective these responses appear to be, and what lessons we can draw about effective public health policymaking in preparation of the next wave of COVID-19 or the next infectious disease pandemic We argue that there will be no way to understand the different responses to COVID-19 and their effects without understanding policy and politics We propose four key focuses to understand the reasons for COVID-19 responses: social policies to crisis management as well as recovery, regime type (democracy or autocracy), formal political institutions (federalism, presidentialism), and state capacity (control over health care systems and public administration) A research agenda to address the COVID-19 pandemic that takes politics as a serious focus can enable the development of more realistic, sustainable interventions in policies and shape our broader understanding of the politics of public health
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TL;DR: It is found that political corruption motivates large-scale political distrust that undermines public compliance to government protocols, limits the outcomes of government responses to COVID-19 and facilitates the spread of the virus in Nigeria.
Abstract: While studies have explored how health sector corruption, weak healthcare system, large-scale immune compromised population, misinformation and prevalence of highly congested slums contribute to the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria, they have glossed over the impact of political distrust on the spread of the virus. This study explores the impact of political distrust on the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria. The study utilised qualitative dominant mixed methods approach comprising telephone interviews and a survey of 120 educated Nigerians purposively selected from four COVID-19 most affected states including Lagos, Oyo, Kano and Rivers as well as the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The study also relied on secondary data on the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria sourced from Nigeria Centre for Diseases Control from 27 February to 31st August 2020. The study found that political corruption motivates large-scale political distrust. This undermines public compliance to government protocols, limits the outcomes of government responses to COVID-19 and facilitates the spread of the virus in Nigeria. The paper concludes that improving government accountability in the public sector management is relevant for building public trust, promoting citizens' compliance to COVID-19 safety measure and mitigating the spread of the pandemic in Nigeria and beyond.
72 citations
TL;DR: These social policy responses to COVID‐19 reflect, at least in part, existing national policy legacies, and can be understood as a form of “emergency Keynesianism” which is characterized by the massive use of deficit spending during economic crises.
Abstract: How have welfare states responded to the coronavirus pandemic? In this introductory article, we provide a synopsis of papers that comprise this special issue on social policy responses to COVID‐19, an overview of some of the key questions they raise, and some provisional answers to these questions. Our conclusions are threefold: first, these social policy responses, while entailing new developments in many countries, nonetheless reflect, at least in part, existing national policy legacies. Second, these responses can be understood as a form of “emergency Keynesianism,” which is characterized by the massive use of deficit spending during economic crises, with the aim of to supporting rather than challenging core capitalist institutions. Third, there are clear differences in terms of the nature of the reforms enacted during the initial phase of the COVID‐19 crisis as compared to reforms enacted as a response to the 2008 financial crisis.
66 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined how public trust mediates the people's adherence to levels of stringent government health policies and to establish if these effects vary across the political regimes and found that higher levels of public trust significantly increase the predicted compliance as stringency level rises in authoritarian and democratic countries.
Abstract: Purpose
To examine how public trust mediates the people’s adherence to levels of stringent government health policies and to establish if these effects vary across the political regimes.
Methods
This study utilizes data from two large-scale surveys: the global behaviors and perceptions at the onset of COVID-19 pandemic and the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT). Linear regression models were used to estimate the effects of public trust and strictness of restriction measures on people’s compliance level. The model accounted for individual and daily variations in country-level stringency of preventative measures. Differences in the dynamics between public trust, the stringent level of government health guidelines and policy compliance were also examined among countries based on political regimes.
Results
We find strong evidence of the increase in compliance due to the imposition of stricter government restrictions. The examination of heterogeneous effects suggests that high public trust in government and the perception of its truthfulness double the impact of policy restrictions on public compliance. Among political regimes, higher levels of public trust significantly increase the predicted compliance as stringency level rises in authoritarian and democratic countries.
Conclusion
This study highlights the importance of public trust in government and its institutions during public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results are relevant and help understand why governments need to address the risks of non-compliance among low trusting individuals to achieve the success of the containment policies.
65 citations
TL;DR: In this article , a diverse, multidisciplinary panel of 386 academic, health, non-governmental organization, government and other experts in COVID-19 response from 112 countries and territories to recommend specific actions to end this persistent global threat to public health.
Abstract: Despite notable scientific and medical advances, broader political, socioeconomic and behavioural factors continue to undercut the response to the COVID-19 pandemic1,2. Here we convened, as part of this Delphi study, a diverse, multidisciplinary panel of 386 academic, health, non-governmental organization, government and other experts in COVID-19 response from 112 countries and territories to recommend specific actions to end this persistent global threat to public health. The panel developed a set of 41 consensus statements and 57 recommendations to governments, health systems, industry and other key stakeholders across six domains: communication; health systems; vaccination; prevention; treatment and care; and inequities. In the wake of nearly three years of fragmented global and national responses, it is instructive to note that three of the highest-ranked recommendations call for the adoption of whole-of-society and whole-of-government approaches1, while maintaining proven prevention measures using a vaccines-plus approach2 that employs a range of public health and financial support measures to complement vaccination. Other recommendations with at least 99% combined agreement advise governments and other stakeholders to improve communication, rebuild public trust and engage communities3 in the management of pandemic responses. The findings of the study, which have been further endorsed by 184 organizations globally, include points of unanimous agreement, as well as six recommendations with >5% disagreement, that provide health and social policy actions to address inadequacies in the pandemic response and help to bring this public health threat to an end.
60 citations
TL;DR: The problem of antibiotic resistance should be understood within the framework of socioeconomic and ecological efforts to ensure the sustainability of human development and the associated human–natural ecosystem interactions.
Abstract: Antibiotic resistance is a problem for human health, and consequently, its study had been traditionally focused toward its impact for the success of treating human infections in individual patients (individual health). Nevertheless, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes are not confined only to the infected patients. It is now generally accepted that the problem goes beyond humans, hospitals, or long-term facility settings and that it should be considered simultaneously in human-connected animals, farms, food, water, and natural ecosystems. In this regard, the health of humans, animals, and local antibiotic-resistance-polluted environments should influence the health of the whole interconnected local ecosystem (One Health). In addition, antibiotic resistance is also a global problem; any resistant microorganism (and its antibiotic resistance genes) could be distributed worldwide. Consequently, antibiotic resistance is a pandemic that requires Global Health solutions. Social norms, imposing individual and group behavior that favor global human health and in accordance with the increasingly collective awareness of the lack of human alienation from nature, will positively influence these solutions. In this regard, the problem of antibiotic resistance should be understood within the framework of socioeconomic and ecological efforts to ensure the sustainability of human development and the associated human-natural ecosystem interactions.
50 citations
References
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TL;DR: The case of Latin America: party politics and the crisis of presidentialism in Chile -a proposal for a parliamentary form of government, Arturo Valenzuela presidentialism and democratic stability in Uruguay, Luis Eduardo Gonzalez and Charles Guy Gillespie Brazil - toward parliamentarism?, Bolivar Lamounier presidentialism, and Colombian politics, Jonathon Hartlyn loose parties, "floating" politicans, and institutional stress -presidentism in Ecuador, 1979-1988, Catherine M. Conaghan presidents, messiahs, and constitutional breakdowns in Peru, Cynthia McCl
Abstract: Part 1 Comparative perspectives: presidentialism and majoritarian democracy - theoretical observations, Arend Lijphart neither presidentialism nor parliamentarism, Giovanni Sartori presidentialism and parliamentarism in comparative perspective, Alfred Stepan and Cindy Skach presidentialism and political stability in France, Ezra N. Suleiman. Part 2 The case of Latin America: party politics and the crisis of presidentialism in Chile - a proposal for a parliamentary form of government, Arturo Valenzuela presidentialism and democratic stability in Uruguay, Luis Eduardo Gonzalez and Charles Guy Gillespie Brazil - toward parliamentarism?, Bolivar Lamounier presidentialism and Colombian politics, Jonathon Hartlyn loose parties, "floating" politicans, and institutional stress - presidentialism in Ecuador, 1979-1988, Catherine M. Conaghan presidents, messiahs, and constitutional breakdowns in Peru, Cynthia McClintock Venezuela - democratic despite presidentialism, Michael Coppedge.
450 citations
TL;DR: Questions about capacity and mechanisms through which democracy has been shown to be beneficial for health have not traveled well to explain the performance of governments in this pandemic are explored, even amid the pandemic when it is too soon to draw conclusions.
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged governments around the world. It also has challenged conventional wisdom and empirical understandings in the comparative politics and policy of health. Three major questions present themselves: First, some of the countries considered to be most prepared-having the greatest capacity for outbreak response-have failed to respond effectively to the pandemic. How should our understanding of capacity shift in light of COVID-19, and how can we incorporate political capacity into thinking about pandemic preparedness? Second, several of the mechanisms through which democracy has been shown to be beneficial for health have not traveled well to explain the performance of governments in this pandemic. Is there an authoritarian advantage in disease response? Third, after decades in which coercive public health measures have increasingly been considered counterproductive, COVID-19 has inspired widespread embrace of rigid lockdowns, isolation, and quarantine enforced by police. Will these measures prove effective in the long run and reshape public health thinking? This article explores some of these questions with emerging examples, even amid the pandemic, when it is too soon to draw conclusions.
103 citations
TL;DR: The aging of the global population, combined with changes in technology and cultural understandings of disease and the body, have thrust discussion and contestation over health into the center of local, national, and global politics.
Abstract: The aging of the global population, combined with changes in technology and cultural understandings of disease and the body, have thrust discussion and contestation over health into the center of local, national, and global politics. Is the politics of health different from the politics of other policy domains? On a number of dimensions, I conclude that it is. Voters and politicians in the developed world appear more likely to accept redistributive claims with respect to health than they are in other policy areas. Nations vary less widely in spending on health than on other functions of government and policy. Moral claims made about health are more likely to attach to its politics than are moral claims about the environment, labor, finance, and energy. More than these other realms, health politics encompasses issues regarding identity, the human body, and other personal matters that endow the health arena with greater significance. Bureaucratic agencies of state are more involved in the provision and regu...
79 citations
TL;DR: An agenda for research of health policy from a governance perspective, focussing on the consequences of decision-making structures and practices, the mediatisation of the pandemic, the organisation of healthcare systems and the role of expertise is proposed.
43 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine an extensive data set composed of all roll call votes taken in the Chamber of Deputies from 1989 to 2006 in order to separate and evaluate the impact of local pressures on the behavior of national legislators.
Abstract: According to a widely held view of Brazilian politics, part of the difficulty Presidents experience in governing the country stems from the fact that national legislators respond to pressures from the States rather than from the national government Based on the argument, governors use their institutional position not only to influence national debates, but also to determine outcomes via the control they exert over their States' legislative delegations In this paper we examine an extensive data set composed of all roll-call votes taken in the Chamber of Deputies from 1989 to 2006 in order to separate and evaluate the impact of local pressures on the behavior of national legislators The data span five Presidencies and four different legislatures and show that, although present, the local influence is weaker than that of the national government in the voting decisions of individual legislators We argue that there are institutional resources that allow the central government to counter the centrifugal pressures exerted by federalism and other aspects of Brazil's current institutional system
29 citations