Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic—the worst pandemic since the Spanish flu—has dramatically changed the world, with a significant number of people still suffering and dying from the disease. Some scholars argue that the pandemic has severely damaged democratic countries, mainly because they cannot intervene in their citizens' lives, as opposed to their authoritarian counterparts. This paper reports that authoritarian countries tend to have lower COVID-19 deaths than their democratic counterparts, but stringent intervention is not necessarily a key determinant. A higher number of tests is a more critical determinant of authoritarian countries' advantage, using cross-national data for 163 countries. Testing seems to be a vital tool to reduce deaths (IRR=0.66, P < 0.001). This study uses statistical evidence to demonstrate that authoritarian countries are likely to conduct more tests leading to lower death rates. The result implies that authoritarian states can strengthen citizens' support for their government through the COVID-19 pandemic.
