Pandemic Politics in Southeast Asia: Society, Governance, and the State

Part of the Ronald and Janette Gatty series

Tom Pepinsky, Tisch University Professor, Department of Government, Cornell University

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is the most significant challenge facing Southeast Asia since the 1997-98 economic crisis. As in the case of the economic crisis, politics determines how countries have responded. Adopting a broadly comparative perspective on the region, I outline some broad lessons from the first six months of the pandemic about how the region’s political systems, focusing on narratives of “good governance,” political accountability, and state-society relations. These lessons from this comparative approach travel beyond Southeast Asia, and I will draw comparisons between the experiences of Southeast Asia and countries such as Germany, Taiwan, Rwanda, and the United States.