Governing a crisis and crises of governance: The political dimensions of COVID-19

Along with its impacts on health systems, economies, and schooling, one of the lasting effects of COVID-19 has been on the civic and political sphere. From conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia, to Myanmar’s recent military coup, governance restrictions have been either a lightning rod for opposition actors or a means of justifying repression and suspension of the rule of law. We draw on IFPRI’s CPR to examine various governance restrictions that were prominent during the first 12 months of the pandemic and focus on three main policy responses: postponing elections and restricting political rallies; censorship justified as a means to discourage misinformation; and imposing states of emergency. For the latter, we examine how this near-universal policy response had substantively different components and modes of implementation.