Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences (KJSS)

Testing the relationship between democratic accountability and the approved use of inactivated COVID-19 vaccines: Evidence from 194 countries
Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences -- formerly Kasetsart Journal (Social Sciences), Volume 044, Issue 1, January 2023- March 2023, Pages 1-8
ISSN: 2452-3151(0125-8370)
DOI: doi.org/10.34044/j.kjss.2023.44.1.01
Poowin Bunyavejchewina,*, Porntep Kamonpetchb, Ketsarin Sirichuanjunc
Download
598 Downloads, Cited by N/A
aThammasat University Research Unit in History and International Politics, Institute of East Asian Studies, Thammasat University, Rangsit Campus, Pathum Thani 12121, Thailand
bDepartment of Information Management, School of Management, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 106335, Taiwan
cInstitute for Urban Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Disease Control, Bangkok 10220, Thailand
*Corresponding author, e-mail: pw6@staff.tu.ac.th
Abstract
Rapidly inoculating populations with efficacious vaccines is key to ending the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study attempts to identify political determinants that could explain how governments worldwide chose the main COVID-19 vaccines used in their countries. Specifically, it provides a quantitative examination of the association between democratic accountability (i.e., democratic regime type and government accountability) and approved usage of inactivated COVID-19 vaccines (namely, CoronaVac, BBIBP-CorV, and WIBP-CorV) in 194 countries. This examination is conducted using the method of binary logistic regression. Results indicate that the use of such vaccines is negatively associated with government accountability. Conversely, democracies have a higher tendency to approve the use of this vaccine type. This implies that governments with greater accountability, regardless of their political nature, tend to have better COVID-19 vaccine policies, viz., procuring higher-quality COVID-19 vaccines for mass vaccination.
Keywords
COVID-19 vaccines, democracy, democratic accountability, government accountability, inactivated COVID-19 vaccines
Downloads
Copyright ©2021 Kasetsart University Research and Development Institute
Contact: kjss@ku.th