Elected autocrats, their pandemic responses (The Hindu, GS-2, Governance, International relation))

01 Jun Elected autocrats, their pandemic responses (The Hindu, GS-2, Governance, International relation))

Context:- Response of India, USA and Brazil to the pandemic shows the elected representatives’ autocracy. There is a similarity in the representatives of three countries. Author tries to show these similarities.

• Similarities:-

• • the U.S.which has one of the highest per capita death in pandemic in the world.
  • Donald Trump took the pandemic as a personal affront and didn’t even give heed to scientific community
  •  Brazil has taken denialism to new levels when her president said it is just an influenza, nothing else.
  • Bolsanaro who became famous as tropical trump due to his ego maniac policies
  • In india 1st wave was somehow bear by indians but the mismanagement of 2nd wave on the pretext of election and religious gathering led to outburst of pandemic by mutation.
  • they came to power as classic right­wing populists who branded themselves as incarnations of the people
  • All three have surrounded themselves with yes ­men and ruled from the gut, peddling triumphalism
  • autocrats feed on polarisation and hyper nationalism. All three have championed a virtuous nationalism
  • once in power, the autocrats quickly personalised, centralised and insulated their power
  • over­ridden
  • the authority of expert institutions, tampered with data, assaulted the independence of the me
  • elevated loyalty to the leader as the highest principle of service.

Conclusion:- democracies are not just about their leaders. Throughout the crisis, health­care workers and civil society organisations have stepped up where their leaders have failed, and democratic institutions have pushed back.

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Swarn Singh

Plutus IAS Current Affair Team Member