German Institute for Global and Area Studies | Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien

COVID-19 and Executive Personalization in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and the MENA Region

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, political leaders reacted by containment measures that, next to combating the spread of the pandemic, also presented a window of opportunity to bolster executives’ personal grasp on power. Personalization of power has been particularly worrying in the Global South where constraints on the chief executives were often already weak prior to the pandemic. This project assesses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the personalization of executive power in 36 countries of the Global South.
DFG, 2021-2024

Team

Dr. Martin Acheampong

Research Fellow

Dr. Esther Song

Research Fellow

Head

Prof. Dr. Mariana Llanos

Lead Research Fellow / Co-Leader of the GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies (ad interim)

Dr. David Kuehn

Senior Research Fellow / Coordinator GIGA Forum

Dr. Thomas Richter

Lead Research Fellow / Head of Research Programme "Accountability and Participation"

Research Questions

The project will answer the three following research questions:
(1) What is personalization of executive power; how can we operationalize and identify it empirically across regime types?
(2) What were/are the characteristics of the personalization of executive power before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the selected countries of the Global South?
(3) What explains the differences and similarities in the personalization of executive power across countries and over these periods, and what role does the COVID-19 pandemic play in that?

Contribution to International Research

By answering these questions, the project contributes to three bodies of academic scholarship: the burgeoning literature on democratic backsliding and autocratization; the emerging research that describes and explains the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on political developments across the world; and the diverse contributions from area studies that have long tracked the patterns and processes of the personalization of executive power in individual countries. In addition to the scholarly contribution, the project’s results will be crucially relevant for decision-makers, civil society actors, and citizens concerned about the recent trend of executive personalization and autocratization.

Research Design and Methods

This project pursues four research objectives. First, we develop a concept of the personalization of executive power that is applicable across regime types and different world regions. Second, we construct a theory of the personalization of executive power during the COVID-19 pandemic. Third, we collect empirical data on the personalization of executive power before and during the COVID-19 pandemic across 36 systematically selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East & North Africa (MENA region) and create the Personalization of Executive Power (PEXPower) dataset. Fourth, we draw on the PEXPower dataset and accompanying qualitative data to describe the impact of executive personalization before and during the COVID-19 pandemic across three policy areas in each country: public health, internal security, and economic policy. We identify differences and similarities across and within countries in our sample through a systematic, multi-method research design that integrates qualitative and quantitative methods.

GIGA Focus Africa | 4/2023

Under Pressure: Democratisation Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa

Recent military coups underscore that democratisation is under pressure in Africa. While long-term trends paint a positive picture, current threats to democratisation beyond the coups include socio-economic challenges, violent conflict, power-hungry elites, and external support for autocrats.

Prof. Dr. Matthias Basedau

Director of the GIGA Institute for African Affairs / Editor GIGA Focus Africa

GIGA Focus Asia | 3/2023

Federalism in Times of Crisis: Insights from India’s COVID-19 Response

Why do some subnational units respond better to crises than others, despite having the same constitutional authority to act? This GIGA Focus investigates the cases of four Indian states to identify factors contributing to successful COVID-19 crisis management.

Prof. Dr. Chanchal Kumar Sharma

Associate

GIGA Focus Africa | 1/2023

Ten Things to Watch in Africa in 2023

Russia’s war against Ukraine has accelerated international competition for influence in Africa. Structural weaknesses and post-pandemic instabilities continue to threaten democratic governance, peace, and development. We present a selective list and analysis of “ten things to watch” in Africa in 2023.

Prof. Dr. Matthias Basedau

Director of the GIGA Institute for African Affairs / Editor GIGA Focus Africa

Dr. Julia Grauvogel

Senior Research Fellow / Research Team Spokesperson

GIGA Focus Global | 3/2022

COVID-19 and Violent Actors in the Global South: A Complex Relationship

A cross-regional comparative analysis of the effects of COVID-19 on violence shows high levels of variation between contexts and in terms of specific armed actors. While Latin America along with the Middle East and North Africa have experienced an overall reduction, violence in sub-Saharan Africa has increased.

Yannick Deepen

Dr. André Bank

Dr. Julia Grauvogel

Prof. Dr. Sabine Kurtenbach

GIGA Focus Global | 2/2021

Executive Personalisation in the Time of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is revealing its severe implications not just for health systems worldwide. One striking political consequence has been renewed power concentration in the executive. There are signs of a global increase in this executive personalisation having occurred over the last 12 months.

Dr. David Kuehn

Prof. Dr. Mariana Llanos

Dr. Thomas Richter

Workshop | 25/06/2023 - 27/06/2023

The Personalization of Executive Power: Conceptual, Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives

This workshop examines the personalization of executive power, understood as a process in which political leaders increase their concentration of power at the expense of other actors. Its main goal is to bring together international scholars working on different perspectives and facets of this phenomenon.

GIGA Forum | 24/02/2021

Stretching Boundaries: How Chief Executives Expand their Power

Stretching Boundaries: How Chief Executives Expand their Power, Online event, Berlin Organisers: German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) Dr. Julia Grauvogel (Moderator), Dr. Thomas Richter (Panelist), Prof. Dr. Mariana Llanos (Panelist), Prof. Dr. Christian Göbel (Panelist)

Stretching Boundaries: How Chief Executives Expand their Power

Dr. Julia Grauvogel

Dr. Thomas Richter

Prof. Dr. Mariana Llanos

Prof. Dr. Christian Göbel