COVID, Conspiracy, and Trust in Government: Evidence from Ukraine

• In Event: COVID-19, Political Attitudes, and Government Support in Ukraine

Abstract

The Covid pandemic hit the world at a time when trust in institutions, such as government and the media, was under threat across the world. The lingering effects of the global financial crisis, mass population movements, the spread of social media and deliberate disinformation campaigns had roiled the political space in emerging and long standing democracies alike. The outbreak of a global coronavirus pandemic in early 2020 was a dramatic new addition to an already precarious situation. Theoretically, the pandemic could have multiple effects. Given the inability of nation states to protect their citizens from illness and even death, and the tremendous uncertainty introduced by a novel virus, the pandemic threatened to undermine even further the fragile faith in political institutions, the media and even democracy itself. On the other hand, given that fighting the virus would require coherent state action, it is also possible that for some citizens the pandemic could lead them to turn more to their institutions and political system. To unpack these issues, we use panel data collected in Ukraine before and after the global pandemic of 2020-21. We focus on how anxiety and other emotions, as well as preexisting political preferences shaped how citizens’ trust in institutions and commitment to democracy was affected by the onset of the pandemic in Ukraine and draw comparative lessons to be tested in other contexts.

Authors

• Graeme Robertson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Grigore Pop-Eleches, Princeton University