ABSTRACT
When the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic shook the world in the spring and summer of 2020, both democratic and non-democratic countries took action to prevent the spread of the disease. Drawing from semi-structured expert interviews, media accounts, and survey data, this chapter compares and contrasts initial government responses and citizen reactions to government actions in two post-Soviet authoritarian states: Belarus and Kazakhstan. The chapter argues that while the leadership in both Belarus and Kazakhstan sought to legitimise its rule by portraying the state as ‘socially oriented’ (in Belarus) or ‘listening’ and pro-business (in Kazakhstan), the state’s inability to deliver welfare at a moment of crisis exacerbated popular resentment, thus changing the political opportunity structure of each state. Furthermore, the chapter contends that differences in political opportunity structures explain why popular resentment developed into an immediate formidable political crisis in Belarus and a belated one in Kazakhstan.
