Who's Gonna Go First? - Forms of Government and the Reactions to Covid-19

Democratic countries hesitated longer to enact some "social distancing" measures, such as school closures, against the spread of the coronavirus than authoritarian states. The time lag was one to two weeks. With other restrictions such as international travel controls, we do not find any time differences. Moreover, federally organized countries such as Germany have not acted more slowly than unitary states such as France.