he COVID-19 crisis is a moment of opportunity for authoritarians around the world. They see the pandemic as a golden chance to further consolidate political and economic power both at home and abroad. Meanwhile, liberal democracies, distracted by their own internal crises, may only be able to pay fleeting attention to the greatest of transgressions. Smaller anti-democratic actions that threaten to slowly erode individual and economic freedoms are even more likely to fly under the radar.
The world’s democracies must take a more aggressive approach to holding authoritarians accountable. For their part, market-based democracies will need to prove that they represent the most effective path to restoring prosperity, opportunity, security, and resilience.
China’s actions amid the pandemic serve as obvious examples of possible exploitation attempts. After first covering up and then somewhat containing the coronavirus outbreak, China has employed “mask diplomacy” efforts in an effort to reform its image. This involves supplying free, albeit often faulty, medical equipment and other aid and is widely viewed as a not-so-subtle move to extend China’s broader foreign policy agenda while reinforcing its networks of influence in strong-man regimes and at-risk democracies. Furthermore, China has taken advantage of global powers’ divided attention to expand its influence in the contentious South China Sea and attempted to exert greater control over Hong Kong.
Changing the Pandemic Narrative
Meanwhile, populist leaders and dictators alike are changing the pandemic narrative through a variety of means: disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks, increased military activity, limits on personal freedoms, intimidation tactics, and realignment of government resources to benefit political allies and cronies or enable corruption. For example, Tanzania’s government is among those that stopped releasing COVID-19 data to the public, with leaders claiming that God helped end the pandemic there. This is despite reports from both the U.S. embassy and individual hospitals that Tanzania’s hospitals are being overwhelmed by sick people.
The range of other alarming actions includes the following:
• Russia and Venezuela: Conspiracy theories to consolidate support, where the governments assert the disease was brought in by foreign powers or groups.
• Nicaragua: Refusal to acknowledge the COVID-19 crisis and suppressing dissent.
• Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong: A crackdown on the justice system.
• Pakistan: Greater military control, including health response aspects.
• Nigeria: Budget and governance shifts, where the government recently cut the budgets of anti-corruption agencies, essentially making them non-existent.
• Foreign direct investments known as “corrosive capital,” which exploit governance gaps in recipient countries.
• Zimbabwe: Authorities are using COVID-19 as a rationale for destroying marketplaces and trading locations
• China and Hungary: Propaganda with perceived shortcomings of democracy related to pandemic responses.
• Some countries have pressured journalists, including revoking press credentials and threatening their residency status, over articles about the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the current environment, what can freedom-supporting organizations do to help counter the potential impact of these messages and actions? While each country has its own particular institutions and situations, an effective response often requires action on several levels. The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) has collaborated with entities in the private sector and civil society to identify best practice for encouraging positive reform. These best practices are outlined below.
Fostering Change and Reform
Call out bad behavior: Democratic governments must distinguish between legitimate reactions to the public health crisis and actions clearly intended to limit the rights and freedoms of citizens. International watchdogs and their local counterparts must identify and communicate government restrictions that threaten both freedom and public health.
Encourage independent oversight: Civil society within democracies demands oversight of pandemic-related expenditures, a feature absent from authoritarian ones. For example, OnWatch in Turkey has a COVID-19 website page that provides the public with data-driven information, including total COVID-19 cases, related deaths, recovery numbers, and figures from other countries.
Protect the role of the press: A free press, through both traditional and digital media, delivers a key check on expenditure and government decision-making and journalists must help others understand the impact. For example, The Gambia adopted new oversight mechanisms due to reporting by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project with local journalists. These journalists exposed corrupt networks and illicit financial flows that sustained the regime of toppled dictator Yahya Jammeh.
Link economic recovery success to good governance: Fact-checking and “sunset provisions” for some COVID-19 related laws are among the controls and accountability measures that the private sector in these economies should be demanding in concert with civil society allies. Many associations in Africa are embracing anti-corruption and compliance initiatives, including a new business integrity program called the “Ethics First” certification process, aimed at creating a network of trusted trade partners.
Global Community: International donors should enhance programs that provide support to local champions of accountability. The International Chamber of Commerce Academy and CIPE made a short, universal anti-corruption training video for business associations. They also support programs that promote digital freedoms and an open internet.
Lead by example: Market-based democracies should realize that their own citizens, as well as observers around the world, will pass judgement on how effectively they have coped with the pandemic. This will be influenced by how well their own economies recover after the COVID-19 economic emergency. The Business Fights Poverty organization is among those with a guidebook of global best practices for a COVID-19 Response Framework, to include mobilizing peers and funding for local action.
Restoring Opportunity
As the debate over the impact of COVID-19 and the future of globalism continues, many are searching for guidance and assistance. A former U.S. White House official once explained that: “…you never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” He elaborated that disasters tend to expand one’s way of thinking and ability to solve old problems in new ways. This well-known maxim is a positive message about democratic values and creative thinking in times of adversity.
Conversely, modern authoritarians excel at identifying good governance gaps in less-developed countries. While authoritarian systems possess basic contradictions that make good governance a pipe dream, many are highly adept at utilizing and exporting “political technology,” a term created years ago by the Kremlin to describe the strategic use (or manipulation) of information via sophisticated tools and platforms. This helps explain why regimes based on coercion and suppression may at first appear stable, strong, and effective in their response to crises.
Authoritarian governments have poor track records of providing credible governance during health crises and other emergencies. Furthermore, they are likely to utilize the controls enacted under the guise of public health and safety to continually or further limit rights and freedoms in COVID-19’s aftermath. To push back, champions of democracy must be ready to support those who act for freedom anywhere, as our own freedom and prosperity will be shaped and affected by their success in our globalized world.
a global affairs media network
Protecting Democracy Amid the COVID-19 Crisis
June 25, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic gives authoritarians worldwide a chance to consolidate political and economic power while liberal democracies are distracted by their own crises. Democracies must aggressively hold authoritarians accountable.
T
he COVID-19 crisis is a moment of opportunity for authoritarians around the world. They see the pandemic as a golden chance to further consolidate political and economic power both at home and abroad. Meanwhile, liberal democracies, distracted by their own internal crises, may only be able to pay fleeting attention to the greatest of transgressions. Smaller anti-democratic actions that threaten to slowly erode individual and economic freedoms are even more likely to fly under the radar.
The world’s democracies must take a more aggressive approach to holding authoritarians accountable. For their part, market-based democracies will need to prove that they represent the most effective path to restoring prosperity, opportunity, security, and resilience.
China’s actions amid the pandemic serve as obvious examples of possible exploitation attempts. After first covering up and then somewhat containing the coronavirus outbreak, China has employed “mask diplomacy” efforts in an effort to reform its image. This involves supplying free, albeit often faulty, medical equipment and other aid and is widely viewed as a not-so-subtle move to extend China’s broader foreign policy agenda while reinforcing its networks of influence in strong-man regimes and at-risk democracies. Furthermore, China has taken advantage of global powers’ divided attention to expand its influence in the contentious South China Sea and attempted to exert greater control over Hong Kong.
Changing the Pandemic Narrative
Meanwhile, populist leaders and dictators alike are changing the pandemic narrative through a variety of means: disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks, increased military activity, limits on personal freedoms, intimidation tactics, and realignment of government resources to benefit political allies and cronies or enable corruption. For example, Tanzania’s government is among those that stopped releasing COVID-19 data to the public, with leaders claiming that God helped end the pandemic there. This is despite reports from both the U.S. embassy and individual hospitals that Tanzania’s hospitals are being overwhelmed by sick people.
The range of other alarming actions includes the following:
• Russia and Venezuela: Conspiracy theories to consolidate support, where the governments assert the disease was brought in by foreign powers or groups.
• Nicaragua: Refusal to acknowledge the COVID-19 crisis and suppressing dissent.
• Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong: A crackdown on the justice system.
• Pakistan: Greater military control, including health response aspects.
• Nigeria: Budget and governance shifts, where the government recently cut the budgets of anti-corruption agencies, essentially making them non-existent.
• Foreign direct investments known as “corrosive capital,” which exploit governance gaps in recipient countries.
• Zimbabwe: Authorities are using COVID-19 as a rationale for destroying marketplaces and trading locations
• China and Hungary: Propaganda with perceived shortcomings of democracy related to pandemic responses.
• Some countries have pressured journalists, including revoking press credentials and threatening their residency status, over articles about the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the current environment, what can freedom-supporting organizations do to help counter the potential impact of these messages and actions? While each country has its own particular institutions and situations, an effective response often requires action on several levels. The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) has collaborated with entities in the private sector and civil society to identify best practice for encouraging positive reform. These best practices are outlined below.
Fostering Change and Reform
Call out bad behavior: Democratic governments must distinguish between legitimate reactions to the public health crisis and actions clearly intended to limit the rights and freedoms of citizens. International watchdogs and their local counterparts must identify and communicate government restrictions that threaten both freedom and public health.
Encourage independent oversight: Civil society within democracies demands oversight of pandemic-related expenditures, a feature absent from authoritarian ones. For example, OnWatch in Turkey has a COVID-19 website page that provides the public with data-driven information, including total COVID-19 cases, related deaths, recovery numbers, and figures from other countries.
Protect the role of the press: A free press, through both traditional and digital media, delivers a key check on expenditure and government decision-making and journalists must help others understand the impact. For example, The Gambia adopted new oversight mechanisms due to reporting by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project with local journalists. These journalists exposed corrupt networks and illicit financial flows that sustained the regime of toppled dictator Yahya Jammeh.
Link economic recovery success to good governance: Fact-checking and “sunset provisions” for some COVID-19 related laws are among the controls and accountability measures that the private sector in these economies should be demanding in concert with civil society allies. Many associations in Africa are embracing anti-corruption and compliance initiatives, including a new business integrity program called the “Ethics First” certification process, aimed at creating a network of trusted trade partners.
Global Community: International donors should enhance programs that provide support to local champions of accountability. The International Chamber of Commerce Academy and CIPE made a short, universal anti-corruption training video for business associations. They also support programs that promote digital freedoms and an open internet.
Lead by example: Market-based democracies should realize that their own citizens, as well as observers around the world, will pass judgement on how effectively they have coped with the pandemic. This will be influenced by how well their own economies recover after the COVID-19 economic emergency. The Business Fights Poverty organization is among those with a guidebook of global best practices for a COVID-19 Response Framework, to include mobilizing peers and funding for local action.
Restoring Opportunity
As the debate over the impact of COVID-19 and the future of globalism continues, many are searching for guidance and assistance. A former U.S. White House official once explained that: “…you never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” He elaborated that disasters tend to expand one’s way of thinking and ability to solve old problems in new ways. This well-known maxim is a positive message about democratic values and creative thinking in times of adversity.
Conversely, modern authoritarians excel at identifying good governance gaps in less-developed countries. While authoritarian systems possess basic contradictions that make good governance a pipe dream, many are highly adept at utilizing and exporting “political technology,” a term created years ago by the Kremlin to describe the strategic use (or manipulation) of information via sophisticated tools and platforms. This helps explain why regimes based on coercion and suppression may at first appear stable, strong, and effective in their response to crises.
Authoritarian governments have poor track records of providing credible governance during health crises and other emergencies. Furthermore, they are likely to utilize the controls enacted under the guise of public health and safety to continually or further limit rights and freedoms in COVID-19’s aftermath. To push back, champions of democracy must be ready to support those who act for freedom anywhere, as our own freedom and prosperity will be shaped and affected by their success in our globalized world.
