Governing a Pandemic: Assessing the Role of Collaboration on Latin American Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

How do governments address complex, cross-sectoral problems, like the COVID-19 pandemic? Why were some Latin American countries more successful at containing the pandemic's most devastating health outcomes? We argue that national governments that were more collaborative in their response to COVID-19 were more successful in reducing death rates. Our original dataset offers a novel attempt to operationalise collaborative governance (CG). We undertake simple statistical tests to measure the relationship between CG and COVID-19-related mortality rates in Latin America. We then choose three case studies to assess whether collaboration was meaningful in practice. Initial evidence suggests governments that pursued CG were more effective at containing mortality rates early on in the pandemic. The collaboration helped to foster cooperation over resources; buy time to prepare for a potential case surge; and produce a unified message regarding what citizens should do to prevent viral spread.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of the COVID-19 Emergency Outbreak Prevention and Control Based on CIA-ISM

“…Based on the results for critical event identification and cause-effect correlation analysis, the core of establishing an effective emergency management for epidemic prevention and control in a COVID-19 crisis is to develop a regional collaborative governance system (event SE7). Regional collaborative governance includes effective crisis prevention and reconstruction of public health through collaborative implementation of cross-regional resource allocation, information sharing, and mutual funds assistance [ 33 , 34 ]. First, it is necessary to realize a regional collaborative governance system to dispatch medical supplies, healthcare facilities, and medical personnel for epidemic prevention and control in a comprehensive manner (event SE4).…”

From Economic to Political Power: Economic Elites and Policymaking During Times of Crisis

“…Although most authors agree that bureaucrats in this ministry have close ties to business, they question the degree to which business interests have been unduly influential (Cotler, 2000; Vergara, 2012). Dargent (2015), for instance, recognises that these ties exist, but that “it is overreaching to call such proximity subordination” (p. 33). Similarly, Vásquez (2000) concludes that “[t]he literature has overestimated [economic groups’] influence over decision making” (p. 383).…”

“…As Crepaz et al, (2022) argue, because the pandemic would cause important economic disruptions, governments had reason to prioritise the mitigation of financial distress on economic groups, particularly of those with the resources to put forth their demands. Cyr et al (2021) analyse the extent to which governments in LA collaborated with different societal groups, and -though this is not the focus of their papertheir data suggests that collaboration with corporate groups was higher than with social movements or the scientific community.…”

Guatemala 2021: Reconsolidating Impunity and Reversing Democracy

“…For decades, patients, doctors, and civil society activists have decried the abysmal state of public hospitals and clinics, which routinely lack the most basic medical supplies even as the budgets of the Ministry of Public Health and Welfare (MSPAS) and the Institute of Social Security (IGSS) have grown (Hernández 2015). Moreover, as Jennifer Cyr and co-authors note, Guatemala's low levels of collaborative governance-the national government's ability "to design and coordinate policy" with other actors-no doubt hamper its capacity to mount quick and effective responses to public health crises (Cyr et al 2021).…”