Political Institutions and Public Health: The Dynamics of Covid Policy Response

Abstract

What is the relationship between institutions, the restrictions of civil liberties, health outcomes, and polarization during the Covid pandemic? This question is of enormous importance because we need to know whether the effects of the pandemic unfold with equal fervor across different systems or whether specific institutional contexts shape more effective responses than others. A crucial question is whether the far-reaching restrictions in civil liberties to combat the pandemic are used everywhere with similar effect or whether certain types of institutional, social, and health contexts are more likely to employ such restrictions. In short, the paper aims to sort out the relationship between institutional context, restrictions of liberties, polarization, and pandemic health outcomes. Some impressionistic evidence suggests that differences in institutional structures seem to influence health outcomes. In Germany’s federal, the sub-national Länder governments implemented policies with little direction from the national government. Despite this varied response, Germany controlled its surging death rate. In contrast, France pursued swift action in Macron’s highly centralized government by instituting stringent lockdown procedures as early as March 15, 2020. Even with these measures, France experienced much worse outbreaks than Germany registering over 20,000 deaths by April that same year compared to Germany’s roughly 4,800. Is this pattern from two countries generalizable? Using a unique data set that integrates institutional features, a measure of restrictions of civil liberties, polarization indicators, and health policy outcomes, our preliminary findings show that while leaders may boast about certain policy arrangements necessary to stem the tide of the virus, forces and structures outside their immediate control ultimately constrain their ability to maneuver towards an effective policy response. While classic institutional features play a significant role in managing pandemic response, it is conditioned on the availability of hospital resources. Furthermore, the general social environment (that is, whether societies are cooperative or antagonistic) is fundamental to how states approach the pandemic. All told, our results provide some answers on patterns of success (or failure) in addressing COVID-19.