POPULISM AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Nils Ringe and Lucio Rennó are editing a volume on the links between the Covid-19 pandemic and populism and summarise the main findings here. They observe how populists performed the same crisis over time, noticing that all populists invoked ‘the people' to justify their responses to the pandemic. However, only those in opposition tried to perpetuate the Covid-19 crisis by conflating it with general political and representational crises like immigration and globalisation. Moreover, they say that the response of populist politicians such as Trump and Bolsonaro are more the exception than the rule, and were driven mainly by their nativism and authoritarianism. Finally, they point out that other factors are very important, such as regime types, political systems and levels of poverty. They conclude that in democratic countries, the pandemic does not seem to have increased the demand for populism in the short term. However, populists who are in government in non-democracies have been using the pandemic to consolidate power and exploit it for their own political benefit. © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Luca Manucci;individual chapters, the contributors.

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. © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Nils Ringe and Lucio Rennó;individual chapters, the contributors.

Bolsonarismo e as eleições de 2022

The article analyzes the ideological components, based on preferences of political issues, of the voter who supports Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonarism is a right-wing electoral alignment in Brazil, strongly associated with dimensions of a conservative agenda, including a tough-minded vision in the fight against crime, strong culturalist reaction to progressive gender politics, economic liberalism, rejection of social inclusion policies based on quotas and reticence regarding cash transfer policies. More recently, Bolsonarism incorporated denialism in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, adherence to conspiracy theories and an option for anti-democratic alternatives. We tested this alignment using data from the Cara da Democracia series of public opinion surveys for the years 2018 to 2022. © 2022, Estudos Avancados. All Rights Reserved.

The Pandemic and the Crisis of Democracy in Brazil

Some claim that an erosion of democracy is occurring worldwide. There are also questions on the scope of the crisis, which countries are affected, and how to reverse it. The Covid-19 pandemic may have fostered disagreements, deepened rifts, and contributed to the definitive crystallisation of the crisis, but it may also have engendered more moderate and compliant attitudes given the need to unify around the response to common threat. We explore the current dilemmas of democracy in the Brazilian case, focusing on how regime legitimacy, authoritarian attitudes, and support for a populist, authoritarian leader interact and are affected by the pandemic, using public opinion data from 2018 to 2020.