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 Figures List of Tables List of Abbreviations List of Contributors Part l Introduction 1: Rachel M. Gisselquist;Andrea Vaccaro: What COVID-19 Can Tell Us about the State: A Global Look at the First Year of the Pandemic Part II Sub-Saharan Africa 2: Kofi Takyi Asante: Harnessing Residual Capacity: Ghana's Struggle against Health System Constraints in the COVID-19 Response 3: Amy S. Patterson: The Effects of Limited Capacity, Ideational Legitimacy, and Weak Authority on the Tanzanian State Response to COVID-19 Part III Asia 4: Julio C. Teehankee: Pandemic Populism amid Weak State Capacity in the Philippines 5: Duc Anh Dang;Anh Tran: Local Governance and COVID-19's Health Impact: Evidence from Vietnam Part IV Latin America 6: Calla Hummel;V. Ximena Velasco Guachalla;Jami Nelson-Nuñez; Carew Boulding: Decentralization, State Capacity, and Inequality: Explaining COVID-19 Outcomes in Bolivia 7: Camila Gianella: The Devasting Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Peru: The Undermining Role of Vertical Health Policies in Health Systems 8: Mateo Jarquín: Nicaragua's Puzzling Pandemic Response