How States Respond to Crisis

Rachel M. Gisselquist is Professor in Governance and Development, and Director of the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre (GSDRC), University of Birmingham (UK). She is also a non-resident senior research fellow with UNU-WIDER, where she was based 2011-2024. Previously, she was a research director at Harvard University, where she co-authored the first several editions of the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, now a standard reference on governance. Her research examines issues of inequality, ethnic politics, state-building, foreign aid, governance, and democracy. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MPP from Harvard.Andrea Vaccaro is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and an associate member of St Antony's College. Previously, he was a visiting researcher at UNU-WIDER and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Insubria. His research interests lie at the crossroads between comparative politics and global development. Recently, he has worked on the interplay between the state, political regimes, and development, as well as international aid, COVID-19 responses, and measurement and indicators. He received his PhD from Sapienza University of Rome.

• List of FiguresList of TablesList of AbbreviationsList of ContributorsPart l Introduction1: Rachel M. Gisselquist;Andrea Vaccaro: What COVID-19 Can Tell Us about the State: A Global Look at the First Year of the PandemicPart II Sub-Saharan Africa2: Kofi Takyi Asante: Harnessing Residual Capacity: Ghana's Struggle against Health System Constraints in the COVID-19 Response3: Amy S. Patterson: The Effects of Limited Capacity, Ideational Legitimacy, and Weak Authority on the Tanzanian State Response to COVID-19Part III Asia4: Julio C. Teehankee: Pandemic Populism amid Weak State Capacity in the Philippines5: Duc Anh Dang;Anh Tran: Local Governance and COVID-19's Health Impact: Evidence from VietnamPart IV Latin America6: Calla Hummel;V. Ximena Velasco Guachalla;Jami Nelson-Nuñez; Carew Boulding: Decentralization, State Capacity, and Inequality: Explaining COVID-19 Outcomes in Bolivia7: Camila Gianella: The Devasting Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Peru: The Undermining Role of Vertical Health Policies in Health Systems8: Mateo Jarquín: Nicaragua's Puzzling Pandemic Response