13:15 - 15:30
Thursday-Panel
Chair/s:
Julie Hassing Nielsen
Discussant/s:
Julia Schulte-Cloos
Meeting Room K

Christopher Anderson, Sara Hobolt
Changing Norms in Times of Crisis: Citizens, Masks, and Political Information During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Citizens, Masks, and Political Information During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Wang Leung Ting
Impact of House of Common hybrid proceeding on members participation during COVID-19 pandemic

Julie Hassing Nielsen
Loyalty in the Face of Adversity? Exploring party loyalty during the Covid-19 pandemic crisis in Sweden and Denmark

Davide Morisi, Max Schaub, Guillaume Kon-Kam-King, Héloïse Cloléry
Incumbency voting, right-wing support, and the threat of Covid-19: the case of France

Moritz Marbach, Dalston Ward, Dominik Hangartner
How COVID-19 Lockdown Policies Weaken Civic Attitudes in the United States and Europe
How COVID-19 Lockdown Policies Weaken Civic Attitudes in the United States and Europe
Dominik Hangartner, Moritz Marbach, Dalston Ward
ETH Zurich

The spread of COVID-19 has prompted governments to implement a range of restrictions to public life and the economy, i.e., lockdown policies. We evaluate the short- and medium-term impacts of lockdown policies on civic attitudes relevant for the health of democracy. Using survey data collected daily between March and May 2020 in the United States and Europe from 27,317 respondents, we document that lockdown policies give rise to authoritarian attitudes and, to a lesser degree, support for autocracy. We find little evidence that lockdown policies affect satisfaction with democracy and the government, out-group hostility, and generalized trust. Additional analyses reveal that the effects on authoritarian attitudes and support for autocracy persist for at least six weeks, that the lifting of lockdown policies does not have a countervailing effect away from authoritarianism and support for autocracy, and that economic support packages have limited ability to alleviate the negative consequences of lockdowns on civic attitudes. Together, these findings confirm the existence of lockdown's political repercussions, but show the need for a nuanced assessment of their breadth and depth. We discuss the implications of our findings for how governments need to accompany lockdowns with measures that strengthen democratic attitudes and civic culture.