A Study of Five Major Democracies
The novel coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on public health in most countries, but it has caused specific damage in five of the world’s most populous and toughest democracies: the United States, Brazil, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. These states have five of the highest COVID-19 deaths and cases of any country, and all have battled the pandemic. Democracy itself is not the explanation for its failures in public health. Other democracies, from wealthy and established democracies like Germany and Taiwan to politically fragile middle-income democracies like Thailand, have developed effective responses that have minimized the cost of the virus. Some democracies, such as Australia and Canada, have not only produced effective public fitness responses, but have also taken physically powerful measures to mitigate the pandemic’s effect on inequality. Several authoritarian states, such as Vietnam, have pursued policies aimed at limiting the spread of the virus; Other authoritarian states, such as Iran and Russia, have failed to manage the pandemic.
Instead, the huge social and economic inequalities in those five ethnically and racially diverse countries have made the pandemic more difficult to control. These states have failed to manage the novel coronavirus, in part because they have never resolved their historic internal divisions, which COVID-19 has caused. 19 has brutally revealed. In addition, the leaders of those states that have attacked political systems and social team spirit have hindered the reaction to the pandemic.
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Beyond exposing inequalities and devastating public health, the pandemic has had two damaging effects on all of those countries: COVID-19 has actually worsened socioeconomic inequalities, perhaps for years to come, and it has particularly exacerbated democratic regression. In those five states, the number of cases and deaths from the novel coronavirus is hitting racial, ethnic, and often devout minorities and the poor the hardest; Poor and minority communities overlap in particular, and many of those same citizens suffer from pre-existing conditions that make them more likely to become seriously ill or die from COVID-19. The pandemic appears to be further exacerbating economic and social inequalities, with some leaders adopting pandemic-era measures that could further harm minority and deficient groups. Moreover, as has happened in crises beyond the primaries, political leaders have taken advantage of the emergency to corrode democratic norms and the democratic establishment, in those five democracies and around the world. .
However, the coronavirus pandemic, like many others beyond crises, has caused this damage and provided an opportunity for societies to come together and think big about possible political reforms. Some politicians are finding that pushing for primary political reforms in the wake of the devastating pandemic could simply increase their popularity and draw help from all political sectors; In some smaller democracies, such as New Zealand, politicians who promoted social unity and equality and enacted primary reforms during the pandemic have achieved electoral victories. Although there is no universal solution in these five democracies, authorities could simply take advantage of the urgency of the pandemic to promote large-scale structural reforms to counter democratic regression and address some facets of socioeconomic inequalities. As these five countries are among the largest and toughest democracies in the world, any measures they take to address their inequalities and combat democratic regression will serve as an example to States around the world. However, if they allow COVID-19 to worsen inequalities and accelerate democratic backsliding, they will also serve as an example to other countries.
A variety of original analyses, knowledge visualizations, and commentary that examine global health debates and efforts. Weekly.
This article was made possible by the generous support of the Henry Luce Foundation.
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