A recipe to control the first wave of COVID-19: More or less democracy?

PurposeThis research aims to study some national government success factors at controlling the first wave of COVID-19. The author placed special attention on democracy-related factors.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 156 countries were studied during the first half of 2020 and their government effectiveness was analyzed regarding six dependent variables, namely, the government’s daily average of stringency index, the outbreak response time, the daily average of cases and deaths per million, the daily average of tests per thousand and the mortality rate.FindingsThe study finds that countries with the highest democracy indexes applied the softest social constraints measured by the daily average stringency index. These countries suffered a more severe pandemic impact confirmed by the highest daily averages of cases and deaths per million and the highest mortality rate. Similarly, these countries exhibited the shortest outbreak response time and the most extensive daily average tests per thousand.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of this study include lack of universal consensus for the dependent variables’ definitions, inconsistencies in how countries record COVID-19 deaths, differences in testing efforts, variances on health services, unreliable data from less democratic countries and so on.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, no previous research paper has studied the explanatory power of the author selected government success factors at controlling the first wave of COVID-19, which constitutes this study’s original contribution.