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The concept of fragility has gained an increasing relevance in development discourse. Nevertheless, it remains a fuzzy and elusive concept. This article presents a review of the literature, and identifies two main sets of definitions of fragility, which substantially differ in their focus and breadth, and that reflect the evolution of the discourse around this developmental concept. The limited consensus that is found in the literature suggests that the analytical salience and the direct operational value‐added of the concept remain unclear. Nevertheless, the debate around state fragility has played an important advocacy role, and has offered key methodological insights with respect to the challenges that donors face, and what can be realistically achieved through external engagement.

We analyze the consequences of the decision of French government to maintain the first round of the municipal elections on March 15, 2020 on local excess mortality in the following weeks. We exploit heterogeneity across municipalities in voter turnout, which we instrument using a measure of the intensity of local competition. The results reveal that a higher turnout was associated with a significantly higher death counts for the elderly population in the five weeks after the elections. If the historically low turnout in 2020 had been at its 2014 level, the number of deaths would have been 21.8 percent higher than the one that was recorded. More than three quarters of these additional deaths would have occurred among the individuals aged 80 and above.