COVID-19 and State Capacity in Latin America

Comparative Perspectives on Responses to the Pandemic
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-3-032-15571-9
Verlag: Springer

Buch, Englisch, 196 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 481 g

Reihe: Latin American Societies

This open access book analyses Latin American countries’ state capacity based on these countries’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The causes and consequences of uneven state capacity have been a popular academic debate in social welfare provision during the last decades. The pandemic raises further concerns. The making and implementation of infection-preventive measures have relied on the capability of the state authority to deploy health infrastructure, provide timely and extensive health services, and mobilize policy tools to build desirable collective action either by coercive or non-coercive means. In this sense, the global pandemic “presents a rare naturally occurring experiment” to draw comparative lessons.

Additionally, amid the burgeoning COVID-19 literature worldwide, Latin America stood out as a region that provides an important reference to the comparative perspective on the global pandemic. It unfolded one of the worst scenarios, particularly during the first year of the pandemic, evident in the major indicators such as infected cases, death tolls, and mortality rates. So, not all of the Global South hit the score evenly, making Latin America remarkably worse in inter-regional terms than Africa and Asia, making it one of the epicenters of the pandemic. Academic studies have added nuance to this picture by suggesting intra-regional variations. Latin American countries differed in many critical ways, including early successes and failures in containing virus spreads, political leadership and coordination, and measures taken for social distancing. Subnational variations were also remarkable in federal regimes. This multi-layered diversity thus provides seedbeds for the identification and test of theoretical puzzles.

will be a valuable resource for political scientists and researchers from many other disciplines within the social sciences interested in the study of state capacity and social welfare provision. 

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Okada, Isamu

Fachgebiete

• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Gesundheitssystem, Gesundheitswesen
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Arbeit/Sozialpädagogik
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Public Health, Gesundheitsmanagement, Gesundheitsökonomie, Gesundheitspolitik
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1. Introduction: Revisiting State Capacity on the COVID-19 Pandemic.- Chapter 2. State Capacity, Divergence in Health Systems, and Outcomes among Latin American Countries.- Chapter 3. Tracing Test Capacity in Latin America during the COVID-19 Pandemic.- Chapter 4. Assessing the Impact of Central Government Announcements on Mask-Wearing Compliance in Latin America during COVID-19.- Chapter 5. Path Dependent Disparities of Brazil’s Healthcare System and State Response in Coping with COVID-19.- Chapter 6. State Capacity and Policy Diffusion in Latin America: The Case of COVID-19.- Chapter 7. Collaborative Governance as a Policy Strategy to Combat the Covid-19 Pandemic: Lessons from Latin America.- Chapter 8. State Capacities in Argentina's COVID-19 Vaccine Endeavor: Challenges, Strategies, and Lessons towards Pandemic Preparedness.- Chapter 9. Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Isamu Okada is a political scientist and a professor at the Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University. Before his current position, he worked at the Japanese Embassy in the Plurinational State of Bolivia and as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Japan Society for Promotion of Science. His research interests range from resource governance, political participation, Latin American politics, and, most recently, the social impacts of COVID-19. He has publications employing quantitative methods and on-site and online surveys before and during the pandemic, published in , and . He has ample fieldwork experience in Bolivia, Peru, and other Latin American countries.