How Political Science Explains Countries’ Reactions
to COVID-19
A comparison between Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico
shows the decisive role of institutions.
History shows that countries that treat labor badly
have slower growth.
Noah Smith notes:
“What is an institution? To most people it means
well-established organizations, such as big businesses or the civil service.
Economists use the word more generally to mean the rules of the game that
govern human society. These can be official rules such as laws, electoral systems
and property rights, or informal ones such as social customs, corruption or
selective enforcement of laws. That’s an incredibly broad definition. But the
key idea is that institutions of both the formal and informal kind last for a
long time and govern human behavior in ways that can’t easily be explained by
rational individual action”.