HMP Gov Lab contributors talk about their new book: Coronavirus Politics
Why have countries reacted in such different ways to the coronavirus pandemic? HMP Governance Lab contributors Scott L. Greer, Elizabeth J. King and Elize Massard da Fonseca brought together 67 researchers from all over the world to answer this question.
The result is a new book from the University of Michigan Press, Coronavirus Politics: the comparative politics and policy of COVID-19. The book explores the political factors that determined COVID response in 34 countries and within the World Health Organization and the European Union.
The book’s detailed empirical case studies show that while state capacity matters, politics and political factors -such as Federalism, Presidentialism, or the concentration of authority- matter much more. High capacity countries like Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United States wasted their impressive public health capacity in 2020, resulting in delayed responses to the pandemic and some straight up denialism.
Countries which were successful in controlling the pandemic mobilized state capacity quickly and effectively. Both Denmark and Vietnam, while very different countries with different levels of capacity, effectively used the resources at their disposal and took the pandemic seriously. Quick and strong responses allowed states with less capacity to nevertheless control the spread of disease.
Furthermore, the authors found that social policy isn’t just about addressing the longstanding effects of the pandemic, it is actually crucial to the public health emergency response. Telling people to stay at home does not work if those people need to leave the house to work or to get basic necessities such as food. Responding to the pandemic therefore requires mobilizing other parts of the state apart from public health infrastructure.
Scott Greer notes that political factors caused most countries to respond in less than optimal ways to the pandemic. ‘Tolstoy was right - there’s many different ways to be unhappy and only one way to be happy. Most countries in the world had an unhappy outcome. The few who could implement centuries old public health strategies were happy. Their rarity shows the difficulty of adhering to public health advice,’ he said.
If you would like to know more, you can hear the authors talk about their work on Thursday, April 22nd, 12 noon to 1.30pm at a virtual event hosted by UM’s International Institute. Register here to attend the webinar.
