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In this paper, I seek to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on voter behaviour in the 2020 general elections in Ghana using survey data compiled in Greater Accra between July and August 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic became a major campaign issue in last year's election prompting varied responses and support from both the government and the main opposition parties. Though a majority of the electorate were satisfied (83.5%) and grateful (82%) for the relief items they received, only 3 out of every 10 of the respondents think the intervention had an effect on the way they voted. Using the rally-effect theory, the paper finds that the political leadership and incumbent government were able to rally support for their campaign as a result of the social intervention policies implemented in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, yet were unable to sustain and translate that support into electoral victory in the Greater Accra Region, a major swing region with the highest number of Covid-19 cases and one of the only two regions that witnessed a lockdown during the height of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both developing and developed countries have felt the impact of COVID-19 on global politics and trade. The African continent faces new threats in addition to already existing challenges like poor infrastructure, underdevelopment and weak institutions. Through an analysis of official speeches and UN reports on the emerging developments around COVID-19, this paper explores the impact of the pandemic on Africa and answers the critical question of the potential and place for Africa's international relations in a post-COVID world. While many argue that COVID-19 has further deepened the gap between Africa and the developed world, this paper argues that it has also created opportunities for innovation and a re-emergence of Africa as a more vital continent in global politics and far removed from its colonial legacy. This study finds that Africa's vast resources and wealth of experts; its innovative local industries and rapid response potential; its active community and grassroots; its committed private sector; the work of the African Union; the continent's geopolitical and economic position, and its many lessons position it to be a strong player in a post-COVID world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crises brought about by COVID-19 have provided us with a key set of observations about global power in an era where international relations scholars are close to coming to a consensus in acknowledging the decline of Western and specifically American hegemony. This paper adopts a decolonial approach to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on international politics. It argues that throughout much of the Western world, COVID-19 has marked one of the first unexpected encounters with death that populations have faced since World War II and the pre-poliomyelitis vaccine era. As a result, global health policies mandated by the WHO have been articulated in favour of the West. Statistical analysis of death tolls brought about by COVID-19, numerous other infectious diseases and viruses along with associated geographic patterns reveal that quarantine and lockdown policies were carried out at the expense and wellbeing of much of the developing world. Contrary to popular contemporary arguments that contend the international liberal order is in decline, the emergence of COVID-19 and subsequent global health policy responses have demonstrated that Western hegemony and soft power are still salient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of the coronavirus pandemic marked a watershed in Nigeria's socio-economic and political milieu, as it created panic in states. Security governance is one of the ingredients of peace and stability in society, but problems sometimes emanate from law enforcement lapses. This paper examined Nigeria's security governance dilemmas during the lockdown enforcement aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19 and highlighted the key lessons from the government's approach to security governance during the period. Data are gathered through in-depth interviews, media reports and secondary sources. The qualitative paper combined non-killing theory and social contract theory. There were looting of shops, robbery, and killing by security forces, in Lagos, Warri, Aba, Umuahia and other cities during the lockdown owing to the problem of footprint/access. The findings revealed that, despite surveillance efforts, security governance was undermined by the activities of idle youths, non-state armed groups, and unprofessionalism of security forces. While there was a remarkable decrease in crimes compared with the pre-COVID-19 period, the lockdown did not deter troublemakers from engaging in violent acts, such as armed robbery, police violence, and kidnapping. Adequate palliatives should be provided first at high-risk areas during future lockdowns to prevent security threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anisin casts a critical eye on how the Western-sponsored liberal international order has contended with the international crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic both to politics and global economic governance. Health emergencies of a scale and intensity as witnessed in the case of the novel corona virus (COVID-19) are rare. Both papers show how the COVID-19 crisis presents opportunities to challenge the longstanding challenges of postcolonial state. [Extracted from the article]

As African countries battled the Covid-19 crisis in 2020, one of the questions that were raised was whether the state was taking a central stage in the affairs of society, especially solutions to major problems. The question was triggered by the fact that there has been a decline in the capacity, role and prestige of the state in Africa for decades. Yet it seems that the responses to Covid-19, following the WHO guidelines, have placed the state at the centre, without dislocating other stakeholders like the private sector and the civil society. This paper uses the evidence from a select number of African countries of different sizes in various regions of the continent to provide an empirical perspective on the role of the state in Covid-19 responses in 2020 to answer the question of whether Covid-19 has occasioned a return of the state, thus reversing the neoliberal designs in favour of a lean and mean state in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalisation has, in many ways, redefined the discourse on borders. While some countries advocate for state centrism which views the functionality of borders as barriers to the entrance of 'others', some other countries view borders as bridges for closer human connectivity, a functional tool for combating racism. Globalisation has created a balance between the two blocs; borders now act as filters that permit significant connections between people while keeping threats out. The novel COVID-19 disease has, however, in an unprecedented manner, triggered border closures around the world; the globalisation of public health-related issues has redefined borders, as can be seen in Europe, which saw its member states closing their internal borders and by the extension the collective borders of the Union. This research will use secondary data to analyse the development of the Covid-19 disease situation and the resulting impact on refugees and, most importantly, borders; our findings reveal that though the disease demands closed borders on public health grounds, the situation is being used as a tool by policymakers to institutionalise extreme exclusionary measures, which may be sustained post-COVID-19. This paper opposes this move and advocates for the sustainability of the open border system post-COVID-19 due to its benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishing a sovereign wealth fund is one of the instruments the governing party has considered to give expression to the idea of a developmental state. Such an instrument would largely draw on natural resource windfalls to build an intergenerational store of wealth while also responding to longstanding developmental challenges. This makes sense given South Africa's mineral endowments and future prospects in natural gas, as shown recently by the abortive attempt of Royal Dutch Shell to undertake geological surveys along the country's wild coast. A sovereign wealth fund could underpin a developmental state and act as alternative resource for achieving legitimate social goals. South Africa presently lacks fiscal space and does not have the conditions necessary for a viable sovereign wealth fund. These need to be created. Certain resources and institutional qualities are vital to building a functional sovereign wealth fund, including a high-performing economy, current account surpluses or resource windfalls, sound institutional framework, good corporate governance, and strong state capabilities. The effects of the Covid-19 global pandemic, and its devastating impact on the South African economy, could further constrain the options of setting up a sovereign wealth fund, which is why the country needs to develop a long-term path for inter-generational equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The defects and susceptibility of the Nigerian federalism are more pronounced at this period of the Covid-19 pandemic. Existing studies are yet to articulate how the states, in the formulation and enforcement of the lockdown and physical distancing policies, infringed on the federal exclusive matters by closing land borders, airports and imposing partial banking services. There is selective provision/distribution of healthcare facilities and stimulus packages and palliatives across the states by the federal government. The objective of this study is to examine how the conflicting nature of intergovernmental relations is implicated in the level of implementation of containment policies/strategies towards the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria. Based on content analysis and the functional-process theory, the article argued that the cantankerous/imploding disconnects between the federal and state governments–obscuring the making and implementation of harmonised and coordinated pandemic containment policies–constitute key impediment to the fight against Covid-19 in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has devastated societies and economies all over the world. States, both developed and developing, have struggled to mitigate its effects. National interventions have reaffirmed the importance of co-ordination of different levels of government to help cushion the impact of the pandemic. For a developing country such as Kenya, these conversations include issues of decentralisation via a devolved system of governance that was enacted by the 2010 constitution after decades of agitation against centralisation. Devolution was used as a mechanism to curb inequality, create more inclusive governance, as well as enhance service delivery throughout the country. Health was one of the sectors that was decentralised with these aims in mind. However, despite devolution, centralisation tendencies continue to present a challenge to the sector, to policy implementation and the pandemic response. This article seeks to evaluate the extent to which these problems of the two-tiered devolved governance structure affected the COVID-19 pandemic response in its early stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mauritius is usually portrayed as one of the most democratic countries in the world and a symbol of good governance. In the COVID-19 context, it is also cited as one of the very few countries that has successfully halted local transmission of the virus. While this reputation is deserved to some extent, there are very real governance issues and undemocratic tendencies that are experienced by its people but rarely captured by outsiders. Using documentary analysis, this article draws from the COVID-19 context to provide a different view of governance in Mauritius. It shows that Mauritius has long-standing governance issues and points out that the government that came to power in 2014 has had a pronounced autocratic tendency that has exacerbated these governance issues. However, no major protest occurred because it was able to balance public outcry with populist measures. The responses to the pandemic acted as a magnifying glass on those governance issues and the new socio-economic situation created by the pandemic neutralised the effect of populist measures. This, in turn, generated an explosive context worsened by another event like the Wakashio oil spill that led to an emerging citizen's movement that holds the potential to fuel reforms of the country's ailing governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The President of the Republic of South Africa declared a national state of disaster, in terms of the Disaster Management Act 2002 (Act 57 of 2002) on the 16th of March 2020, which empowers the executive to coordinate disaster management mechanism that focuses on preventing and reducing the outbreak of Covid-19 virus. In other words, the legislative and executive functions of the state have effectively been lapsed into one. This case study examines the consequences of this type of emergency regime on the behaviour of parliamentary opposition parties. Parliaments initiate, prepare and pass legislation, as well as exercise oversight and hold government to account. I look at the number of amendments, oral and written questions for a limited period of six months from the announcement of the national state of disaster, and compare with the same period the previous years, 2018, 2019, 2020, to determine if the changing nature of executive-legislative constitutional balance has influenced the behaviour of opposition parties in their strategies relating to policy-making and scrutiny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 30 years, the successive SWAPO regimes that governed Namibia always followed a neoliberal policy path. Co-existing with the neoliberal elites are thousands of Namibians living in squalors in a country that has been declared as one of the most unequal nations on the face of the earth. Over the years, social justice activists never gave up the fight for a just and equitable society. They fought for better shelter, housing, economic equality, land, water and sanitation, free tertiary education and income grants to cushion the poor. The successive SWAPO regimes have been indifferent. Interestingly, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, government ended up implementing the very initiatives it rejected over the years. This text explores several social justice struggles over the years and demonstrates how these were implemented by government as a Covid-19 response in 2020. It thus argues that social justice is possible and the state has demonstrated its capacity in implementing these programmes. It then calls on social justice activists to use the Covid-19 currency to ensure that social justice becomes central in a post-Covid-19 economic order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]