Social injustice in consolidated authoritarian regimes: responding to the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Authoritarian countries have responded to the Covid-19 pandemic in ways which have negative implications for social justice but ironically produced better health outcomes as measured by deaths per 100k people. We examine four authoritarian states: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan as examples of how they reacted to the pandemic. The data show that the four case study countries simply consolidated their repressive regimes which negatively impacted on social justice. Although self-reported health outcomes in authoritarian regimes must be treated with caution, their tactics disregarded basic human rights and resulted indisproportionate suffering of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups.

More by Hyesong Ha

• Using AI to Decipher North Korean messages: an LLM-based text analysis of KCNA newsFrontiers in Political Science · 2026
• Digitalization and Employee Health and Well-Being During COVID-19Administrative Sciences · 2026
• Digitalization, transparency and anti-corruption in authoritarian states: Exploring governance dividends of digital transformation in Central AsiaSSRN Electronic Journal · 2026
• Beyond Risk and Benefit: Seven Dimensions of Energy Justice and the Differentiated Structure of Public Acceptance of High-Level Radioactive Waste RepositoriesSSRN Electronic Journal · 2026