The Relation Between COVID-19 Vaccination, Economic Development and Political Systems, and Sociopolitical Implications of Vaccine Passport

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccinations play a main role in the immunization campaign of nations but countries, after a certain share of people vaccinated have to cope with vaccine hesitancy and resistance in population. The goal of this study here is the detection of the max share of people vaccinable between countries and if this level change according to the political system. Results based on a global analysis of 150 countries reveal that the share of people vaccinated increases with the level of economic development (and democratization) of countries, achieving the maximum level of about 70%; after that, the share of vaccination starts to decrease between countries. Findings also suggest that governments with Monarchy and Parliamentary Monarchy have average share of people vaccinated higher than countries with Mixed Executives. In addition, many Western (and democratic) countries to overcome this max level of people vaccinated are applying bureaucratic rules (e.g., vaccine passport) that reduce many aspects of public and private life of individuals. Phenomena are explained with politics of fear, focused on deaths of COVID-19, and on role of strong leaders having domestic and international support that apply authoritarian rules in contexts of social insecurity with consequential reduction of equity and solidarity in society. These aspects are emerging in institutional contexts having weak democracy and vague separation of powers, though constitutions of Western countries expressly established that these functions have to be strong to address problems of abuse in democracy by rulers and political authorities that if uncontrolled can generate a social harm higher than (pandemic) crisis