El Estado disperso: Relaciones ciudadanía-Estado en el Ecuador durante la pandemia COVID-19

This article theorizes the relations expressed by Ecuadorian citizens toward the Ecuadorian state during the first year and a half of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on qualitative interviews, the perspectives of the participants reveal contradictory relations with the government that are characteristic of neoliberal security states and enduring (post)colonial patterns of racist and classist exclusions: on the one hand, a sense of state abandonment, particularly in public health and education; and on the other hand, the repressive force of the state in its use of police and military measures and states of exception. We propose the term dispersed state to envelop these opposing tendences of simultaneous state absence and presence. We argue that citizen responses to state absence include a certain acceptance of the return of educational and health functions to communities, households, and individuals, nevertheless provoking new forms of cultural adaptation and creativity. Regarding the repressive presence of the state, participants expressed considerable support for authoritarian state measures, frequently justified by essentialist discourses regarding the national citizenry.