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How states respond to crisis : pandemic governance across the Global South
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New York : Oxford University Press, 2025, Wider studies in development economics
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GISSELQUIST, Rachel M., VACCARO, Andrea (editor/s), How states respond to crisis : pandemic governance across the Global South, New York : Oxford University Press, 2025, Wider studies in development economics - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/93995
Abstract
We expect the state to matter in times of crisis, and for more ‘capable’ or ‘stronger’ states to better provide for and protect their populations. But how is it, precisely, that the quality of the state matters? This volume speaks to this question through comparative study of how diverse states in the Global South responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, the largest global crisis in recent memory. Bringing together insights from quantitative cross-country analysis and detailed country case studies, this volume analyses the ways in which the quality of the state—in terms of its capacity, authority, and legitimacy—affected pandemic governance and health outcomes. Overall, while the significance of state capacity to deliver public services in effective pandemic response is clear, so too is striking variation among states lacking ‘strong’ capacity. State legitimacy and authority shed light on this variation, linked in particular to the degree to which governments’ responses were evidence-based versus politically driven, and the tenor of citizen compliance with and government enforcement of public health regulations. Seven case study chapters authored by leading scholars of each country provide deep and specific insight into these relationships in Bolivia, Ghana, Nicaragua, Peru, the Philippines, Tanzania, and Vietnam. Extending beyond a literature on the state based heavily on the study of Global North contexts, this volume sheds new light on the nature of the state and its role in crisis response and development.
Table of Contents
-- Part l Introduction
-- 1:What COVID-19 Can Tell Us about the State: A Global Look at the First Year of the Pandemic, Rachel M. Gisselquist and Andrea Vaccaro
-- Part II Sub-Saharan Africa
-- 2:Harnessing Residual Capacity: Ghana's Struggle against Health System Constraints in the COVID-19 Response, Kofi Takyi Asante
-- 3:The Effects of Limited Capacity, Ideational Legitimacy, and Weak Authority on the Tanzanian State Response to COVID-19, Amy S. Patterson
-- Part III Asia
-- 4:Pandemic Populism amid Weak State Capacity in the Philippines, Julio C. Teehankee
-- 5:Local Governance and COVID-19's Health Impact: Evidence from Vietnam, Duc Anh Dang;Anh Tran
-- Part IV Latin America
-- 6:Decentralization, State Capacity, and Inequality: Explaining COVID-19 Outcomes in Bolivia, Calla Hummel;V. Ximena Velasco Guachalla;Jami Nelson-Nuñez; Carew Boulding
-- 7:The Devasting Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Peru: The Undermining Role of Vertical Health Policies in Health Systems, Camila Gianella
-- 8:Nicaragua's Puzzling Pandemic Response, Mateo Jarquín
Additional Information
Published: 14 April 2025