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  2022-06-18

  Coronavirus: which works better to handle a pandemic – democracy or autocracy?

  This is a news story from the South China Morning Post by Priyanka Shankar. This article is discussing the difference in responses based on forms of government. When it came to handling the pandemic, people from Asian countries where restrictions were much tougher rated a higher rate of satisfaction in government response compared to Latin America and Europe. This was taken from the Democracy Perception Index. According to researcher Fredrick DeVeaux, a leader in conducting this survey, the tight restrictions common in Asian countries are generally accepted because it gets associated with low death rates. The survey does make mention that in countries such as Iran and China, they hid data about the virus from their citizens, affecting their overall response to changes in lockdowns. However, Singapore is also authoritarian, and the prime minister has made an effort to create transparency in what is occurring, so items get hoarded less. Overall, the article claims that the mass mobilization of people and goods under authoritarian regimes fares better than democracies do at creating an effective COVID response.