Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-2n9c9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T08:21:20.402Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

COVID-19, Democracies, and (De)Colonialities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Marcos S. Scauso,
Garrett FitzGerald,
Arlene B. Tickner,
Navnita Chadha Behera,
Chengxin Pan,
Chih-yu Shih and
Kosuke Shimizu
Marcos S. Scauso*
Affiliation:
Quinnipiac University, USA
Garrett FitzGerald*
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame, USA
Arlene B. Tickner*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia
Navnita Chadha Behera*
Affiliation:
University of Delhi, India
Chengxin Pan*
Affiliation:
Deakin University, Australia
Chih-yu Shih*
Affiliation:
National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Kosuke Shimizu*
Affiliation:
Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan
*
E-mail: marcos.scauso@quinnipiac.edu
E-mail: fitzgerald.116@nd.edu
E-mail: arleneb.tickner@urosario.edu.co
E-mail: navnita.behera@gmail.com
E-mail: chengxin.pan@deakin.edu.au
E-mail: cyshih@ntu.edu.tw
E-mail: shimizu@world.ryukoku.ac.jp
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Liberal democracies often include rights of participation, guarantees of protection, and policies that privilege model citizens within a bounded territory. Notwithstanding claims of universal equality for “humanity,” they achieve these goals by epistemically elevating certain traits of identity above “others,” sustaining colonial biases that continue to favor whoever is regarded more “human.” The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these fault lines, unveiling once more the often-hidden prevalence of inequalities that are based on race, gender, class, ethnicity, and other axes of power and their overlaps. Decolonial theories and practices analyze these othering tendencies and inequalities while also highlighting how sites of suffering sometimes become locations of solidarity and agency, which uncover often-erased alternatives and lessons.

Keywords

colonialcoronaviruscoviddecolonialdemocracyinequalityothering

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ayuub, Rana. 2020. “Social Distancing Is a Privilege.” Foreign Policy 28. https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/28/social-distancing-is-a-privilege/.Google Scholar
Brown, Wendy. 2015. The Demos: Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution. Cambridge, UK: Zone Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Busby, Joshua. 2020. “What International Relations Tells Us about COVID-19.” E-International Relations, April 1–10.Google Scholar
Chiou, Lesley, and Catherine, Tucker. 2020. “Social Distancing, Internet Access and Inequality.” The National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER Working Paper No. 26982. https://doi.org/10.3386/w26982.Google Scholar
Collins, Patricia Hill, and Sirma, Bilge. 2016. Intersectionality. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Craddock, Susan. 2000. City of Plagues: Disease, Poverty, and Deviance in San Francisco. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press.Google Scholar
Crawford, Neta C. 1994. “A Security Regime among Democracies: Cooperation among Iroquois Nations.” International Organization 48 (3): 345–385. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002081830002823XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darity, William, Jason, Dietrich Jr., and David K., Guilkey. 1997. “Racial and Ethnic Inequality in the United States: A Secular Perspective.” American Economic Association 87 (2): 301–305.Google Scholar
Escobar, Pepe. 2020. “COVID-19: Confucius Is Winning the Coronavirus War.” Consortium News, April 16 . https://consortiumnews.com/2020/04/16/covid-19-confucius-is-winning-the-coronavirus-war/.Google Scholar
Grosfoguel, Ramón. 2012. “Decolonizing Western Uni-Versalisms: Decolonial Pluri-Versalism from Aimé Césaire to the Zapatistas.” Transmodernity 1 (3): 88–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grosfoguel, Ramón. 2015. “Epistemic Racism/Sexism, Westernized Universities and the Four Genocides/Epistemicides of the Long Sixteenth Century.” In Eurocentism, Racism and Knowledge: Debates on History and Power in Europe and the Americas, ed. Marta, Araújo and Silvia, Rodríguez Maeso, 23–46. Cambridge, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartz, Louis. 1955. The Liberal Tradition in America. Cambridge, UK: A Harvest / HBJ Book.Google Scholar
Jahn, Beate. 2013. Liberal Internationalism. London: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, Betsy, and Jennifer, Hansler. 2020. “Trump Halts World Health Organization Funding over Handling of Coronavirus Outbreak.” CNN, April 15 . www.cnn.com/2020/04/14/politics/donald-trump-world-health-organization-funding-coronavirus/index.html.Google Scholar
Linera, Álvaro García. 2015. Hacia El Gran Ayllu Universal. Pensar El Mundo Desde Los Andes. Edited by Álvaro, Huayta Zárate. México: Altepetl Editores, Biblioteca Indígena.Google Scholar
Mawani, Renisa. 2003. “The Island of the Unclean: Race, Colonialism and ‘Chinese Leprosy’ in British Columbia, 1891–1924.” Law, Social Justice and Global Development Journal 1 (21).Google Scholar
McCormack, Tara, and Lee, Jones. 2020. “COVID-19 and the Failed Post-Political State.” The Full Brexit, April 17 . www.thefullbrexit.com/covid19-state-failure.Google Scholar
Mehta, Uday Singh. 1999. Liberalism and Empire: A Study in Nineteenth-Century British Liberal Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Méndez, José María. 2018. “‘The River Told Me’: Rethinking Intersectionality from the World of Berta Cáceres.” Capitalism Nature Socialism 29 (1): 7–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mignolo, Walter. 2000. Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking. Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mignolo, Walter. 2011. The Darker Side of Western Modernity: Global Futures, Decolonial Options. Latin America Otherwise. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Mills, Charles W. 1997. The Racial Contract. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Mosbergen, Dominique. 2020. “Covid-19 Surge Exposes Ugly Truth about Singapore's Treatment of Migrant Workers.” Huffington Post, April 24 . www.huffpost.com/entry/singapore-coronavirus-migrant-worker_n_5ea15e27c5b69150246df77f.Google Scholar
Peet, Richard, and Elaine, Hartwick. 2015. Theories of Development: Contentions, Arguments, Alternatives. Third. Cambridge, UK: Guilford Publications.Google Scholar
Quijano, Aníbal. 2000. “Colonility of Power and Eurocentrism in Latin America.” International Sociology 15 (2): 215–232.Google Scholar
Quijano, Aníbal. 2002. “Colonialidade, Poder, Globalização e Democracia.” Novos Rumos 37 (17): 1–25.Google Scholar
Rivera, Silvia Cusicanqui. 1990. “Liberal Democracy and Ayllu Democracy in Bolivia: The Case of Northern Potosí.” The Journal of Development Studies 26 (4): 97–121.Google Scholar
Rivera, Silvia Cusicanqui. 2015. Sociología de La Imagen. Miradas Ch'ixi Desde La Historia Andina. Buenos Aires: Tinta Limón.Google Scholar
Santos, Boaventura de Sousa. 2005. Democratizing Democracy: Beyond the Liberal Democratic Canon. Reinventing Social Emancipation. Vol. 1. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Shani, Giorgio. 2020. “Securitizing ‘Bare Life’? Human Security and Coronavirus.” E-International Relations, April www.e-ir.info/2020/04/03/securitizing-bare-life-human-security-and-coronavirus/.Google Scholar
Smith, Andrea. 2005. Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide. Cambridge: South End Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, Shimon, and Oder, Eran. 2020. “The Coronavirus Crisis: A Failing Grade (So Far) for the International System.” Institute for National Security Studies.Google Scholar
Stoler, Ann Laura. 2002. Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Race and the Intimate in Colonial Rule. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Tickner, J. Ann. 1992. Gender in International Relations: Feminist Perspectives on Achieving Global Security. Cambridge, UK: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Tickner, J. Ann, and Laura, Sjoberg. 2013. “Feminism.” In International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity, ed. Tim, Dunne, Milja, Kurki, and Steve, Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Watters, Greg. 2012. “Contaminated by China.” In Australia's Asia: From Yellow Peril to Asian Century, ed. David, Walker and Agnieszka, Sobocinska, 27–49. Crawly, WA: UWA Publishing.Google Scholar
Weber, Cynthia. 2016. Queer International Relations: Sovereignty, Sexuality and the Will to Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Young, Robert. 1990. White Mythologies: Writing History and the West. London: Routledge.Google Scholar