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"--

Populists and the pandemic : how populists around the world responded to Covid-19 / Nils Ringe and Lucio Rennó -- The United States : Trump, populism, and the pandemic / Kenneth M. Roberts -- Mexico : a politically effective populist pandemic response / Nicolás de la Cerda and Cecilia Martinez-Gallardo -- Brazil : "we are all going to die one day" / Frederico Bertholini -- Argentina : Peronism and inclusionary populist adaptation to the pandemic / Germán Lodola and Luisina Perelmiter -- The United Kingdom : the pandemic and the tale of two populist parties / Tim Bale -- Spain : different populist responses with similar (and limited) outcomes / Carolina Plaza-Colodro and Nicolás Miranda Olivares -- Italy : the diverging strategies of the populist radical right during the pandemic / Lisa Zanotti and Carlos Meléndez -- Poland : when populists must manage crisis instead of performing it / Ben Stanley -- Hungary : creeping authoritarianism in the name of pandemic response / Agnes Batory -- Turkey : governing the unpredictable through market imperative / Evren Balta and Soli Özel -- Indonesia : from the pandemic crisis to democratic decline / Eunsook Jung -- India : the good, the bad, and the deadly consequences of India's pandemic response / Saloni Bhogale and Pavithra Suryanarayan -- The Philippines : penal populism and pandemic response / Paul D. Kenny and Ronald Holmes -- Russia : muddling through populism and the pandemic / Anton Shirikov, Valeriia Umanets and Yoshiko Herrera -- Nicaragua : populist performance and authoritarian practice during Covid-19 / Rachel A. Schwartz and Kai M. Thaler -- Venezuela : a populist legacy and authoritarian response / Caitlin Andrews-Lee -- Tanzania : narrating the eradication of Covid-19 / Dan Paget -- South Africa : from populist inertia to insurrection / Ryan Brunette and Benjamin Fogel -- France : balancing respectability and radicalization in a pandemic / Marta Lorimer and Ethan vanderWilden -- Germany : the Alternative for Germany in the Covid-19 pandemic / Marcel Lewandowsky, Christoph Leonhardt and Andreas Blätte -- Belgium : against the government and its parties, (not so much) with the people / Judith Sijstermans and Steven M. Van Hauwaert -- The Netherlands : divergent paths for the populist radical right / Sarah L. de Lange -- Conclusion / Nils Ringe, Lucio Rennó and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser.