Federalism, intergovernmental conflict, and the COVID-19 crises in Latin America

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic posed enormous challenges for governments worldwide to coordinate response efforts, particularly in federal countries. Without observing a clear relationship between federal and unitary countries and the number of deaths from COVID-19 in previous studies, this article explores whether conflicts (or cooperation) between levels of government are associated with more deaths. It codes intergovernmental conflicts examining at least three newspapers every day during the first year of the pandemic in eighteen Latin American countries. Controlling for demographic and socioeconomic variables, results from a regression analysis show a temporal relationship between conflicts and more deaths. The case studies contrast two federations, Argentina and Brazil, with a unitary country, Uruguay, to explore the effects of different forms of cooperation and conflicts. The article concludes by raising some comparative implications for health policies in federal and unitary countries.