Julie VanDusky-Allen, assistant professor of political science in the School of Public Service and Nisha Bellinger, program lead for global studies, program director for the master’s of arts in political science program and associate professor of political science and global studies in the School of Public Service, published an article in the January 27th edition of the journal Contemporary South Asia.
In “Political parties and initial COVID-19 policies: subnational trends in India,” VanDusky-Allen and Bellinger examine government responses to COVID-19 at the subnational level in India early in the pandemic. Their findings demonstrate how political factors can limit the ability of governments to respond to crises. In particular, they found that as the number of parties increased in a state, the less stringent the COVID-19 restrictions were.