2024/10/07 by Salvador Santino F. Regilme, Kévin Parthenay · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Global Security and Public Health #Migration, Refugees, and Integration
paper · doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2024.103212
openalex publication_date 2024/10/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
How do competitive authoritarian regimes in the Global South respond to the COVID-19 pandemic? How do these policy responses facilitate human rights deterioration in societies that are already facing democratic regression during the pre-pandemic period? Examining evidence from the Philippines and Nicaragua during the COVID-19 pandemic, this article demonstrates that competitive authoritarian regimes have reinforced the deterioration of democratic processes and disregard for their human rights commitments amidst the global pandemic. First, such regimes weaponize the legal system to consolidate the powers of the chief executive and their allies. Second, such regimes systematically disregard transparency and accountability when executing state leaders’ public actions and responsibilities. Third, such regimes increasingly empower military personnel and intensify state violence at the expense of science-based approaches to crisis policies, thereby embracing militarism as an overarching orientation.