Viral Authoritarianism: Testing the Limits of Democracy

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We must heed that lesson today. COVID-19 is a threat not just to public health, but also to human rights. Throughout history, crises like the current one have served as a convenient pretext for authoritarian regimes to normalise their tyrannical impulses. My parents witnessed this firsthand in Haiti. We are all seeing it again now.

The new threat started in China, where an already authoritarian government's initial effort to cover up the epidemic allowed it to spread globally. But China is hardly alone.

In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government instituted a 21-day lockdown with only four hours' notice, providing no time for millions of the world's poorest people to stockpile food and water. Worse, Indian law-enforcement authorities have since been using the lockdown to increase their targeted discrimination against the country's Muslims.

Meanwhile, in Kenya and Nigeria, police and military forces have pummeled anyone who does not seem to be complying quickly enough with social-distancing protocols. In Israel, the authorities have joined around two dozen other governments in stretching privacy protections to the breaking point, by using cellphone data to track citizens' movements.

And in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has been consolidating power for years, has pushed through a law that effectively codifies his status as an absolute dictator.

In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has been consolidating power for years, has pushed through a law that effectively codifies his status as an absolute dictator.

The response...