ABSTRACT
This chapter explores governance challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the discord between the Mexican government and the World Health Organization (WHO). Termed a “black swan” event, the pandemic required global coordination, but Mexico diverged from the WHO’s guidelines, leading to governance gaps in knowledge, policy, and institutional cooperation. This divergence, marked by politicisation, scepticism towards expertise, and prioritisation of national narratives over evidence-based strategies, resulted in Mexico favouring herd immunity and mitigation over WHO’s containment measures, causing high mortality and highlighting populist governments’ distrust of international organisations and scientific advice.
Moreover, this chapter delves into the role of the WHO in enhancing global cooperation, particularly through its engagement with COVAX and its strategy for coalition-building. It critically evaluates the resilience of horizontal action frameworks when confronted with politicisation, as well as the ability of international organisations to adjust to populist governments. The case study underscores the urgent need to reassess the legitimacy foundations for international organisations in politically polarised settings. Essentially, entities like the WHO must position themselves as robust international bodies capable of generating influential knowledge and policy through effective horizontal governance. This legitimacy ought to be rooted not just in technical reasoning but also in providing high levels of transparency and deliberative processes as key capacities of international organisations.
