Riding the wave or going under? The Covid-19 pandemic and trust in governments

Abstract

This chapter investigates the nature of the surge in the approval ratings of leaders of ten countries between January 1 and mid-August 2020. These increases occurred in many countries at the same time as the rise in the number of Covid-19 cases and the issuance of stay-at-home orders and liberties’ restrictions. Some authors have argued that these increases in popularity signalled a decisive change in citizens’ political demand in favour of expertise and technocratic forms of government. However, these surges may also illustrate a standard rally-around-the-flag effect that was triggered by a feeling of insecurity in the face of a new menace. The analysis conducted in this chapter tends to favour the latter hypothesis. It is shown that changes in leaders’ popularity have more to do with the severity of the measures taken, which may have provided a sense of security rather than the trajectory of the number of Covid-19 cases and hence the actual management of the epidemic. The analysis undermines the idea that the Covid-19 dramatically changed political demand and represented a critical juncture. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Rajib Bhattacharyya, Ananya Ghosh Dastidar and Soumyen Sikdar;individual chapters, the contributors.