Autocracies centralize power in one person or a small group of elites, which may make them better prepared to respond to emergencies. Autocrats can act without checks on their power to ensure a swift response to an emergency and generally do not have to worry about violating constitutional rights.

Wesleyan University

There are a few divergent theories among scholars as to why democracies or autocracies might be better or worse at responding to emergencies (such as Covid-19).

Theories for Regime Type and Emergency Response

Stasavage, D. (2020). Democracy, Autocracy, and Emergency Threats: Lessons for Covid-19 From the Last Thousand Years. International Organization 74, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818320000338

Stasavage (2020)

Democracies have several advantages over autocracies when it comes to responding to emergencies:
- Because elected officials rely on the support of the public to keep their jobs, they may feel more pressure to act in emergencies than autocrats.
- Increased media freedoms in democracies may also make it harder for governments to ignore emergencies.
- Democracies usually have less social unrest and better economic conditions than autocracies, which might make citizens more likely to obey the government during emergencies.

Democracies and Emergency Response: Advantages

By decentralizing power, democracies may hinder fast and effective emergency responses. 
- Checks and balances meant to force cooperation among different branches of government may prevent the government from acting swiftly.
- Political divisions may contribute to further gridlock.
- Federal systems in which power is divided among the federal government and states/provinces/regions might have difficulty coordinating a united emergency response.

Democracies and Emergency Response: Disadvantages

Autocracies and Emergency Response: Advantages

A lack of checks and balances may work to the disadvantage of autocracies if autocrats don’t feel the need to confront an emergency in the first place. Because autocrats often suppress information, they can hide evidence of a crisis. Finally, because they are not held accountable to the people through free and fair elections, they might not feel the pressure to help their citizens, thus leading to a weak response (or no response at all).

Learn Before

Related