The Demand and Supply of Pandemic Populism: A Global Overview

Abstract

This review article provides a comprehensive overview of the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and populism. We analyse the demand and supply sides of the populist phenomenon during the pandemic. On the demand side, we focus on the interplay between populist attitudes and COVID-19 restrictions by assessing the role of conspiracy theories, social media and alternative news media. On the supply side, we identify similarities and differences in the responses of populist actors globally. Hence, we focus on the main ideational varieties of the contemporary populist phenomenon (right-wing, left-wing and valence populism) while also distinguishing between populists in government and opposition. The analysis reveals that complexity is the defining feature of both the demand and supply sides of populism in times of pandemic.

Using MI-LASSO to study populist radical right voting in times of pandemic

“…First, the most notable finding is that nativist attitudes never emerge in the variable selection process. This is worth emphasizing because the absence of nativist attitudes raises the question of whether PRR voters’ policy concern has changed, as PRR parties politicized various pandemic policies (Lehmann and Zehnter, 2022; Zanotti and Turnbull-Dugarte, 2022; Zulianello and Guasti, 2023). In the next section, we compare the explanatory power of pandemic-related factors on PRR voting and that of nativist attitudes.…”

“…For instance, as immigration issues became less salient, do nativist attitudes still correlate with PRR voting? Relatedly, as PRR parties politicized lockdown measures and vaccination programs (Lehmann and Zehnter, 2022; Zanotti and Turnbull-Dugarte, 2022; Zulianello and Guasti, 2023), what is the explanatory power of pandemic-related factors on PRR voting in comparison to nativist attitudes? These questions are fundamental to understanding PRR voters’ characteristics during the pandemic and can prognose whether PRR’s support is transient in the post-pandemic world.…”

Populism and the pandemic: The politicization of COVID-19 and cleavage agency among populist radical right parties

“…The COVID-19 pandemic may have first and foremost constituted a public health crisis; yet, it quickly turned into a political crisis in European democracies (Engler et al 2021): Across Europe, governments struggled to reconcile "lockdowns" with liberal constitutions, and vaccine policy with democratic freedoms. A key factor in this pandemic crisis were Europe's populist radical right party (PRRP) actors (Bobba & Hubé 2021;Zulianello & Guasti 2023). 1 Before the outbreak of the coronavirus, the anti-establishment politics of PRRPs had strongly shaped political and societal discourses in Europe, constructing novel political and social cleavages between "the true people" and the "liberal elites" (Mudde 2007).…”

“…On the demand side (i.e. focusing on the level of mass attitudes), their review article suggests (among other things) that anti-science attitudes and conspiracy beliefs feature prominently among populist voters (Zulianello & Guasti 2023).…”

“…On the supply side (i.e. zooming in on the role of political actors themselves), studies have found that PRRPs in opposition initially used the pandemic to attack government (Rovira Kaltwasser & Taggart 2022), and then attempted to align it with their nativist agenda (Wondreys & Mudde 2022), while populist parties in power seemed to engage in denial before shifting to 'blame-avoidance' and 'blame-shifting' (Zulianello & Guasti 2023). What remains less clear is the relationship between demand-and supply-side factors.…”