State Power and COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts

Area of Science:

• Political Science
• Public Health
• Sociology

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic presented a critical test for state capacities in managing global health crises.
• Understanding how different forms of state power influence public health outcomes is essential for effective crisis response.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the relationship between state power typologies and COVID-19 vaccination rates across 161 countries.
• To evaluate the predictive power of infrastructural and despotic power for vaccination success during distinct pandemic periods.

Main Methods:

• Constructed a typology of states based on Michael Mann's concepts of infrastructural and despotic power.
• Examined COVID-19 vaccination data for 161 countries across three periods: 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Main Results:

• Infrastructural power, defined as the capacity to coordinate society and implement policy, consistently correlated with higher vaccination rates.
• The importance of specific state capacities shifted over time: economic resources were vital for vaccine acquisition early on, infrastructural capacity for distribution later, and low despotic power for reaching marginalized populations.
• State infrastructural power was a stronger predictor of vaccination rates than economic indicators like GDP.

Conclusions:

• Michael Mann's framework of state power provides a more nuanced understanding of public health governance during global crises than traditional metrics.
• Infrastructural power is a key determinant of effective governance and successful public health interventions, particularly in managing transnational crises like pandemics.