Hybrid Regimes’ Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: “The First Wave” Evidence from Ukraine and Georgia

Abstract

Hybrid regimes have been largely overlooked in the scholarly discussion on
the effectiveness of halting the new COVID-19 virus, not least due to the
lack of conceptual clarity, as such regimes are considered as the halfway or
“grey area” on the authoritarianism-to-democracy path. Hence, the present
paper aims to contribute to the pool of research on the internal dynamics
of hybridity through exploring the responses towards the pandemic by two
stable post-Soviet hybrid regimes, namely Georgia and Ukraine. The “most
similar systems” comparative research design allows us to demonstrate
that the two countries’ di!erent crisis management and communication
strategies explain Georgia’s relative success in halting the virus spread in
comparison to Ukraine throughout the first wave. The application of Henry
Hale’s “single-pyramid” and “competitive pyramid” models of patronal
politics highlights the lack of competitiveness in the formal and informal
governance processes in Georgia’s case, as opposed to the chaotic mode of
decision-making as well as plurality of informal actors in Ukraine’s case.