Good Democratic Governance Can Combat COVID-19-Excess Mortality Analysis

Abstract

Some scholars argue that democratic countries are in crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic and authoritarian countries tend to combat COVID-19. However, these studies are usually based on reported data susceptible to manipulation and often overlook the variation of government effectiveness even in the same type of political regimes. Using excess mortality data from 144 countries, this study analyzed the interaction effect between political regimes and government effectiveness on excess mortality. The results revealed that democratic countries with higher government effectiveness can reduce excess mortality. This study suggests that democratic countries need not give up freedom and need to improve government effectiveness to combat COVID-19.