Quarantined democracies: policy responses to the COVID-19 and the future of democracy

Abstract

This contribution examines firstly the policies deployed by central governments around the world during the first epidemic outbreak of the COVID-19, in particular its degree of severity, and puts it in relation to the class and quality of the political regimes in those countries. According to the method followed, the main conclusion is that there is no clear correspondence between the political regime and the rigor of the measures adopted. Secondly, the text reflects on some foreseeable effects that the fight against COVID-19 could have on representative democracy and also includes a brief plea in favor of innovative democratic practices that, through stochastic procedures, stimulate well-informed collective decision processes and binding,. It is presumed that such practices, deployed at local levels, could generate self-organized citizen communities that could be an agile instrument to face more effectively and equitably the fight against future pandemic outbreaks and any other kind of contingency.