Pandemics Meet Democracy: The Footprint of an Unprecedented Threat on Democratic Systems

• In Event: Protecting Democracy Against Threats

Abstract

How did the COVID-19 outbreak affect citizens' democratic preferences? Were the changes persistent or temporary? We track a representative sample of Spanish citizens (N=1008) before, during and after the pandemic, with seven cumulative waves from January 2020 until November 2022. We compare democratic attitudes before and after the pandemic outbreak with individual fixed effects models. We identify a sharp increase in preferences for technical rather than ideological policy-making at the very onset of the pandemic, as well as significant changes in voters' preferences for capable rather than honest politicians. These changes are sudden and persistent over 2.5 years. On the other hand, using a set of repeated survey experiments we document a very widespread willingness to sacrifice rights and freedoms to deal with the pandemic, as compared to other global threats such as international terrorism and climate change, but this gradually declines over time. Overall, we identify significant changes in democratic attitudes during the pandemic and a durable shift in technocratic preferences.

Authors

• Francesc Amat, IPERG-UB

• Andreu Arenas, University of Barcelona & IEB & IPERG

• Muñoz Jordi, IPERG-UB

• Falcó-Gimeno Albert, IPERG-UB