Letters | Why Covid-19 success has nothing to do with democracy

Coronavirus pandemic

Letters

Published: 6:45am, 8 May 2020

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Democracy is associated with many desirable qualities: accountability, openness, freedom and justice, to name just a few. Many claims have also been made about democratic regimes: that they do not go to war with one another, that they are less prone to terrorism, and that they are more likely to prioritise health care expenditure over military expenditure. Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen famously wrote that “no famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy.”

But infectious diseases do not discriminate in favour of democracy. Regime type seems unrelated to a country’s competence in dealing with the new coronavirus behind Covid-19.

Some democracies such as the United States and Britain have failed to contain the virus, whereas Germany, South Korea and New Zealand have largely kept it under control.

Similarly, authoritarian regimes have produced a mixed record: after a disastrous start, China crafted an effective policy response without the benefit of learning from other countries’ best practices; Russia, in contrast, is experiencing a steep rise in cases.

It is time to acknowledge that democratic regimes do not necessarily outperform authoritarian ones in responding to infectious disease outbreaks. Just as bad governance can arise from democratic regimes, so, too, can good governance arise from authoritarian regimes.

A study by Professor Sara Davies on the correlation between health spending and regime types in Southeast Asia showed that authoritarian regimes are just as likely to devote extra resources to public health as democratic regimes, as exemplified by Vietnam and Laos.

If locking down a city, enforcing social distancing and tracking citizens’ travel history prove to save lives, then those measures should be followed by all means. Covid-19 is a threat to humanity and does not favour one regime type over another.

Our societies should be geared towards solutions that are results-oriented and regime-agnostic, rather than being held back by ideological presupposition.

Jimmy Huang, Kwun Tong

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