Democratic Institutions and Practices and the Impact on Covid-19 Outcomes: Global State of Democracy 2021 Thematic Paper

Abstract

Despite the narratives of authoritarian states, the concerns of journalists and public intellectuals in democracies, and the results of some early studies, this paper shows that democracies fare no worse than authoritarian regimes in combating the Covid-19 pandemic. Democracy is not associated with higher Covid-19 death rates, nor is it associated with lower vaccination rates. Moreover, among many democratic countries, high levels of key democratic components -such as fundamental rights and impartial administration—seem to help prevent deaths and boost vaccination rates. These conclusions are based on statistical analyses of democracy components, as measured by International IDEA’s Global State of Democracy (GSoD) Indices, and the reported Covid-19 death rates and Covid-19 vaccination rates in all countries of the world with a population of at least one million people.