2º bachillerato B

Isadora Campos Santana

18 de April de y

Where the Virus Is Growing Most: Countries With ‘Illiberal

Populist’ Leaders

Brazil, Russia, Britain and the U.S. have something in com-

mon.
By David Leonhardt and Lauren Leatherby (The New York Times)

The four large countries where coronavirus cases have recently been increasing fastest are
Brazil, the United States, Russia and Britain. And they have something in common.
They are all run by populist male leaders who cast themselves as anti-elite and anti-establish-
ment.
The four leaders — Jair Bolsonaro, Donald J. Trump, Vladimir V. Putin and Boris Johnson
— also have a lot of differences, of course, as do their countries. Yet all four subscribe to ver-
sions of what Daniel Ziblatt, a government professor at Harvard and co-author of the book
“How Democracies Die,” calls “radical right illiberal populism.”
This pattern isn’t a coincidence, many political scientists believe. Illiberal populists tend to
reject the opinions of scientists and promote conspiracy theories. “Very often they rail against
intellectuals and experts of nearly all types,” Steven Levitsky, Mr. Ziblatt’s co-author, said.
The leaders, he said, “claim to have a kind of common-sense wisdom that the experts lack.
This doesn’t work very well versus Covid-19.”
In Brazil, Mr. Bolsonaro fired his health minister and has repeatedly called for states to end
stay-at-home orders. In the United States, Mr. Trump rejected the views of experts for almost
two months, predicting the virus would disappear “like a miracle.” In Britain, Mr. Johnson’s
government initially encouraged people to continue socializing, even as other countries were
locking down.
All four leaders also flouted guidance on personal protective measures early on, refusing to
wear a mask or continuing to shake hands.
The pattern is apparent beyond just those countries, too. Iran — a country with a theocratic
supreme leader — is fifth in case growth over the past two weeks among countries with at
least 50 million people. Health experts say the government did not heed warnings about re-
opening too quickly. Mexico — where President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is a left-
wing populist whose government published posters saying the virus “no es grave” (is not se-
rious) — is sixth.

PROYECTO 1
An academic effort to track countries’ responses to the virus has shown that a delay in gov-
ernment reaction allows the virus to spread much faster, said Thomas Hale of the Blavatnik
School of Government at Oxford University, who is leading the effort. Many of the countries
seeing bad outbreaks now share a “late recognition of the urgency of the crisis,” Mr. Hale
said.
Often, leaders who responded more slowly have cited the need to prioritize economic growth.
But the trade-offs between the economy and public health may not actually exist, scientists
and economists say: The fastest route to economic normalcy involves controlling the spread
of the virus.
“There’s this false tension that exists between public health and economic health,” said
Wafaa El-Sadr, an epidemiologist at Columbia University.
The flip side of the pattern involving illiberal populists is that countries run by women appear
to have been more successful in fighting the virus, as some observers have previously noted.
Germany, New Zealand and Taiwan are all examples.
The connection between populist leaders and bad outbreaks is not perfect. Viktor Orban in
Hungary and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines are also illiberal populists who responded
quickly. Case counts appear to be relatively low in both countries. Both Mr. Orban and Mr.
Duterte have used the crisis as an excuse to crack down further on political opponents.
But global patterns usually include exceptions. “There is in fact a pattern,” Mr. Levitsky said.
“Populists don’t like experts — or relying on experts — and an anti-expertise response to the
new coronavirus is deadly.”
Some populist leaders, like Mr. Johnson and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, have recently
begun taking the virus more seriously. In the United States, Mr. Trump’s response has varied
almost by the day, and has also been diluted by the federalist system, in which governors are
making many decisions.
Still, Mr. Hale suspects that populist countries may continue to struggle more than others.
“We’re looking at the initial wave now,” he said, “but it’s going to be a long journey, and my
strong intuition is that countries with really robust governance systems will be the ones that
do best at the end of the day.”

Vocabulary
Pattern: patrón Claim to: decir, adjudicar Guidance: orientación Delay: retraso
Illiberal: intolerante Predicting: pronosticando Heed: acatar Spread: extenderse

PROYECTO 2
 Rail against: despotricar Flout: desobedecer Track: monitorizar Outbreak: brote
contra
Trade-off: solución inter- Flip: vuelta Crack down: tomar medi- Further: más a fondo
media das contra
Diluted: rebajado Struggle: tener dificultad Beyond: más allá de

1. What are the countries where coronavirus cases have been increasing?
2. In this text, what is the difference between countries run by men and the others run by
women?
3. What Mr. Hale suspects?

A. Bolsonaro has hired a new health minister and has called states to obey stay-at-home
orders.
B. In Iran, there are almost no cases of coronavirus.
C. Trump’s response has not changed at any time.

PROYECTO 3