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Leninist regimes in China and Vietnam have been among the world's most successful in dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak. By comparison, electoral populist regimes in Indonesia and the Philippines have seemingly failed in their pandemic responses. Alongside other, ‘softer’ authoritarian regimes in East Asia (Northeast and Southeast Asia), e.g., Singapore and Thailand, this appears to suggest non-democratic rule has proved superior in coping with this health crisis. But a closer look suggests a more complex picture. Liberal democracies with pragmatic governments in South Korea and Taiwan performed well, although relying less on lockdowns and more on tracing, testing, as well as digital technology. But populist rule has indeed often served as a hindrance to accountability in East Asia and beyond. In the Philippines, the Duterte government's poor performance is linked to growing autocratization that has weakened press freedom and limited opposition which might have otherwise resulted in greater accountability and an improved pandemic response.

Mark R. Thompson is professor of politics and head, Department of Asian and International Studies, as well as director of the Southeast Asia Research Centre at the City University of Hong Kong. A specialist of East Asian politics, he has published more than 50 articles in high-ranking journals and is the author or editor of ten books. His most recent book publications are China’s “Singapore Model” and Authoritarian Learning, edited with Stephan Ortmann (Routledge 2020), Governance and Democracy in the Asia-Pacific, edited with Stephen McCarthy (Routledge 2020), Authoritarian Modernism in East Asia (Palgrave 2019), and the Routledge Handbook of the Contemporary Philippines, edited with Eric V. Batalla (Routledge 2018).

You can find a recording of the talk here.