1st Edition
Populists and the Pandemic How Populists Around the World Responded to COVID-19
Populists and the Pandemic examines the responses of populist political actors and parties in 22 countries around the globe to the COVID-19 pandemic, in terms of their attitudes, rhetoric, mobilization repertoires, and policy proposals.
The responses of some populist leaders have received much public attention, as they denied the severity of the public health crisis, denigrated experts and data, looked for scapegoats, encouraged protests, questioned the legitimacy of liberal institutions, spread false information, and fueled conspiracies. But how widespread are those particular reactions? How much variation is there? What explains the variation that does exist? This volume considers these questions through critical analysis of countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa, by leading experts with deep knowledge of their respective cases. Some chapters focus on populist parties, others on charismatic populist leaders. Some countries examined are democracies, others autocracies. Some populists are left wing, others right wing. Some populists are in government, others in opposition. This variation allows for a panoramic consideration of factors that systematically influence or mediate populist responses to the pandemic. The book thus makes a unique contribution to our understanding of the intersection between two of the most pressing social and political challenges of our time.
The book will be of interest to all those researching populism, extremism, and political parties and those more broadly interested in political science, public policy, sociology, communications, and economics.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched www.knowledgeunlatched.org
1. Populists and the Pandemic: How Populists Around the World Responded to Covid-19
Nils Ringe and Lucio Rennó
2. The United States: Trump, Populism, and the Pandemic
Kenneth M. Roberts
3. Mexico: A Politically Effective Populist Pandemic Response
Nicolás de la Cerda and Cecilia Martinez-Gallardo
4. Brazil: "We Are All Going To Die One Day"
Frederico Bertholini
5. Argentina: Peronism and Inclusionary Populist Adaptation to the Pandemic
Germán Lodola and Luisina Perelmiter
6. The United Kingdom: The Pandemic and the Tale of Two Populist Parties
Tim Bale
7. Spain: Different Populist Responses with Similar (and Limited) Outcomes
Carolina Plaza-Colodro and Nicolás Miranda Olivares
8. Italy: The Diverging Strategies of the Populist Radical Right During the Pandemic
Lisa Zanotti and Carlos Meléndez
9. Poland: When Populists Must Manage Crisis Instead of Performing It
Ben Stanley
10. Hungary: Creeping Authoritarianism in the Name of Pandemic Response
Agnes Batory
11. Turkey: Governing the Unpredictable Through Market Imperative
Evren Balta and Soli Özel
12. Indonesia: From the Pandemic Crisis to Democratic Decline
Eunsook Jung
13. India: The Good, the Bad, and the Deadly Consequences of India’s Pandemic Response
Saloni Bhogale and Pavithra Suryanarayan
14. The Philippines: Penal Populism and Pandemic Response
Paul D. Kenny and Ronald Holmes
15. Russia: Muddling Through Populism and the Pandemic
Anton Shirikov, Valeriia Umanets and Yoshiko Herrera
16. Nicaragua: Populist Performance and Authoritarian Practice During Covid-19
Rachel A. Schwartz and Kai M. Thaler
17. Venezuela: A Populist Legacy and Authoritarian Response
Caitlin Andrews-Lee
18. Tanzania: Narrating the Eradication of Covid-19
Dan Paget
19. South Africa: From Populist Inertia to Insurrection
Ryan Brunette and Benjamin Fogel
20. France: Balancing Respectability and Radicalization in a Pandemic
Marta Lorimer and Ethan vanderWilden
21. Germany: The Alternative for Germany in the Covid-19 Pandemic
Marcel Lewandowsky, Christoph Leonhardt and Andreas Blätte
22. Belgium: Against the Government and its Parties, (Not So Much) with the People
Judith Sijstermans and Steven M. Van Hauwaert
23. The Netherlands: Divergent Paths for the Populist Radical Right
Sarah L. de Lange
24. Conclusion
Nils Ringe, Lucio Rennó and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser
Biography
Nils Ringe is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Jean Monnet European Union Center of Excellence for Comparative Populism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.
Lucio Rennó is Professor of Political Science at the Universidade de Brasília, Brazil.