COVID rule breakers as portrayed in Polish pandemic diaries

• In Event: Crime and Covid-19 WG: Impact of COVID-19 on Crime and Criminal Justice Across Europe

Abstract

The period of the pandemic was a test of the functioning of democracy and public institutions in many countries, including Poland. Individual assessment of the risk of infection meant that the introduction of restrictions was widely commented on by the public. Some considered the threat real and the restrictions justified. Others, on the contrary, criticized the decisions of the government, considering the pandemic rules exaggerated. Yet others violated the restrictions despite the legal consequences. In our "Daily Life in the Time of Coronavirus" competition, we collected the diaries written by the members of each of these groups. We learned about the ways of breaking the restrictions, the justifications for breaking them and for complying with them. We saw attitudes change as time went by and new waves of COVID-19 rolled in. Diarist went through three phases: chaos, adaptation and exhaustion, and public policy in Poland accelerated moving to the third phase. The diaries from the pandemic period portray individual motivations of the writers, their opinions on institutions and the perceived state of democracy in Poland in 2020 and 2021.

Author

• Joanna Felczak, Warsaw School of Econmics