Pitting authoritarianism against democracy has become common during the pandemic, with the former often being painted as a more effective regime type in handling Covid-19. The Chinese Communist Party’s own narrative promotes a version of this argument, equating China’s success in keeping cases and deaths low with the “superiority” of its political system. This is in spite of successful containment by some democracies.
But arguing that the world should ignore regime type and instead focus on learning from China’s policies is problematic – it depends on the assumption that policies can simply be grafted from one political system into another. Introducing policies from a different type of regime requires adapting those policies to fit the systems they are absorbed into.
China’s lockdowns are an important example. They have succeeded in controlling transmission because they have followed a clear logic, underpinned by the nature and characteristics of their…