Believe in me: Parties’ Strategies During a Pandemic, Evidence from Ecuador

Abstract

There is a growing interest to evaluate the political aftermath of the pandemic. We study how parties attract voters under the redistributive pressure created by COVID-19, looking into the 2021 Ecuadorian elections. We classify the messages that candidates sent, evaluate if and how candidates used COVID-19 to mobilize voters, and assess how voters reacted to them. We followed 858 virtual events and gathered more than 1’575.000 tweets from candidates and their communities. We find that candidates did not place COVID-19 at the center of their strategies but used it to connect with symbolic messages about the capabilities of parties and candidates. Twitter users had a limited engagement with COVID-19-related content. These findings nuance our expectations of the pandemic. COVID-19 was only an element rather than the core of electoral strategies. Our empirical approach can be easily extended to other cases where in-person events are still limited.

The Political Effects of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Weimar Germany

“…9 Abad Cisneros et al (2021) show that candidates in the 2021 Ecuadorian elections used topics related to COVID-19 to mobilize voters during the campaign.…”

The Political Effects of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Weimar Germany

“…9 Abad Cisneros et al (2021) show that candidates in the 2021 Ecuadorian elections used topics related to COVID-19 to mobilize voters during the campaign.…”

Pandemic Micropolitics in Latin America: Small Business and the Governance of Crisis From Above and Below in El Salvador

“…Such outcomes reflect the challenges of effective and transparent public goods provision in hybrid democratic systems, particularly in contexts of persistent insecurity and diminished rule of law. 2 Unsurprisingly, research has begun to examine the governance implications of COVID-19 in the region (Abad Cisneros et al, 2021;Fernandez and Machado, 2021) with concerns voiced over the extension of authoritarian tendencies, erosion of trust in government, and the emergence of populist and anti-democratic sentiment (Avritzer and Rennó, 2021;International Idea, 2020;Williams, 2021). Yet while the pandemic influenced how the State governed during crisis, it also shifted the roles and actions of non-state actors (Berg and Vasori, 2020).…”