Party Competition during the COVID-19 pandemic: politics as usual or crisis politics?

Queralt Tornafoch Chirveches

doi:10.21996/5kbw-w140

Party Competition during the COVID-19 pandemic: politics as usual or crisis politics?

Queralt Tornafoch Chirveches

Institut for Statskundskab

Publikation: Afhandling › Ph.d.-afhandling

Abstract

I marts 2020 ændrede udbruddet af COVID-19-pandemien verden og blev enudfordring, ikke kun som en nødsituation for folkesundheden, men også som ensocial, økonomisk og politisk krise. De gennemførte foranstaltninger samt krisens uforudsigelighed øgede usikkerhed blandt befolkningen med hensyn tilblandt andet sundhed, økonomi og arbejdskraft. Befolkningen afhang derfor afat politiske eliter adresserede deres bekymringer. Samtidig skulle politiske eliternavigere i en ukendt krise, handle og positioner sig.

Ved at bruge den eksisterende litteraturer omhandlende partikonkurrence og politisk lydhørhed, giver jeg indsigt i, hvordan politiske partier opførte sig, både med hensyn til deres positioner og emneopmærksomhed under de første faser af COVID-19-pandemien. Ydermere giver jeg noget tidlig evidens for, hvordan politiske partier i Europa reagerede på den stigende subjektive usikkerhed, som befolkningen verden over oplevede sammen med udbruddet af pandemien. For at gøre det stiller jeg følgende overordnede forskningsspørgsmål: Hvordan konkurrerede politiske partier med hinanden under COVID-19-pandemien? I perioder præget af disruption kan vi forvente, at politiske partier enten benytter specifikke strategier rettet mod den nye krise eller udviser adfærd som i normale tider. Derfor ligger interessen i, om pandemien ændrede (“krisepolitik”) eller ej (“politik som sædvanlig”) partikonkurrence-mønstre i Europa.

For at undersøge de potentielle forventninger kontekstualiserer jeg først oplevelsen af usikkerhed fra vælgerbefolkningens side (artikel 1). Dernæst analyserer jeg partiernes overordnede adfærd med hensyn til emneopmærksomhed (artikel 2) for senere at fokusere på ét specifikt emne (artikel 3), arbejdsmarkedspolitik. Endelig tager jeg et nøgleemne under pandemien, nemlig afvejningen mellem sundhed og økonomi, for at undersøge, hvor kongruente politiske partier var med vælgerne (artikel 4).

Afhandlingens resultater indikerer, at usikkerhed er ulige fordelt, og at politiske eliters adfærd derfor er afgørende for at afhjælpe dette, især i kriseperioder. Med fokus på partiernes adfærd tyder resultaterne på, at de udviste mere lydhørhed overfor befolkningen, idet strategierne generelt var forskellige sammenlignet med ikke-turbulente tider. Der blev dog ikke kun identificeret forskelle på tværs af lande men også på tværs af familier af politiske partier. Nogle partier var mere tilbøjelige til at være lydhøre overfor vælgernes præferencer end andre. Desuden tilbageviser nogle af disse forskelle (fx det radikale højre og arbejdsmarkedsspørgsmålet) etablerede antagelser i litteraturen. Resultaterne af denne afhandling har vigtige implikationer ikke kun i forhold til forståelsen af partykonkurrence, men, vigtigst af alt, i forhold til lydhørhed og demokratisk funktionsdygtighed i både turbulente og mere rutineprægede tider.

Originalsprog	Engelsk
Bevilgende institution	Syddansk Universitet
Vejledere/rådgivere	Starke, Peter, Hovedvejleder Hopmann, David Nicolas, Bivejleder
Dato for forsvar	24. nov. 2023
Udgiver	Syddansk Universitet. Det Samfundsvidenskabelige Fakultet
DOI	https://doi.org/10.21996/5kbw-w140
Status	Udgivet - 30. okt. 2023

Note vedr. afhandling

Afhandlingen kan læses på SDUs bibliotek. 

Dokumenter og links

10.21996/5kbw-w140

1 Tidsskriftartikel

Riding the COVID-19 Wave? Issue Attention during the Pandemic
Tornafoch-Chirveches, Q., okt. 2023, I: Parliamentary Affairs. 76, 4, s. 821-835
Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › peer review

Citationsformater

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title = "Party Competition during the COVID-19 pandemic: politics as usual or crisis politics?",

abstract = "In March 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic altered the world, becoming a challenge not only as a public health emergency but also as a social,economic, and political crisis. The measures implemented and also the high unpredictability of the crisis, increased insecurity among the population in terms ofhealth, finances, and labour among others. Population, therefore, relied on thepolitical elites to address their concerns. At the same time, political elites had tonavigate an unknown crisis, act and position themselves. Taking advantage of the existing party competition and political responsiveness literature, I offer insights into how political parties behaved, in terms of both position and issue attention, during the first stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, I provide early evidence of how political parties in Europe reacted to the increasing subjective insecurity that the population worldwide experienced with the outbreak of the pandemic. To do so, I pose the following overall research question: How did political parties compete with each other during the COVID-19 pandemic? In times of disruption, we can expect political parties toeither adopt specific strategies targeted at the novel crisis or exhibit similar behaviour to normal times. Hence, the interest lies in whether the pandemic altered ({\textquoteleft}crisis politics{\textquoteright}) or not ({\textquoteleft}politics as usual{\textquoteright}) party competition patterns in Europe. To evaluate the potential expectations, I first put into context the experience of insecurity from the electorate{\textquoteright}s side (paper 1). Then I analyse the overall behaviour of parties in terms of issue attention (paper 2) to later focus on one specific issue (paper 3), labour. Finally, I take a key issue during the pandemic, the tradeoff between health and the economy, to study how congruent were political parties with the electorate (paper 4). The results of the dissertation indicate that insecurity is unequally distributed and that therefore the behaviour of political elites is crucial to alleviate this setting, especially in periods of crisis. Focusing on the behaviour of parties, the findings suggest that they did exhibit a more responsive role towards the general public as strategies overall differed from non-turbulent times. However, differences not only across countries but most interestingly across party families were identified. Some parties were more likely to respond following the preferences of the electorate than others. Moreover, some of these differences (e.g. radical right and the labour issue) refute established literature beliefs. The results of this dissertation have important implications not only in terms of the understanding of party competition behaviour but most importantly in terms of responsiveness and democracy functioning for both turbulent and routinary times. ",

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N2 - In March 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic altered the world, becoming a challenge not only as a public health emergency but also as a social,economic, and political crisis. The measures implemented and also the high unpredictability of the crisis, increased insecurity among the population in terms ofhealth, finances, and labour among others. Population, therefore, relied on thepolitical elites to address their concerns. At the same time, political elites had tonavigate an unknown crisis, act and position themselves. Taking advantage of the existing party competition and political responsiveness literature, I offer insights into how political parties behaved, in terms of both position and issue attention, during the first stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, I provide early evidence of how political parties in Europe reacted to the increasing subjective insecurity that the population worldwide experienced with the outbreak of the pandemic. To do so, I pose the following overall research question: How did political parties compete with each other during the COVID-19 pandemic? In times of disruption, we can expect political parties toeither adopt specific strategies targeted at the novel crisis or exhibit similar behaviour to normal times. Hence, the interest lies in whether the pandemic altered (‘crisis politics’) or not (‘politics as usual’) party competition patterns in Europe. To evaluate the potential expectations, I first put into context the experience of insecurity from the electorate’s side (paper 1). Then I analyse the overall behaviour of parties in terms of issue attention (paper 2) to later focus on one specific issue (paper 3), labour. Finally, I take a key issue during the pandemic, the tradeoff between health and the economy, to study how congruent were political parties with the electorate (paper 4). The results of the dissertation indicate that insecurity is unequally distributed and that therefore the behaviour of political elites is crucial to alleviate this setting, especially in periods of crisis. Focusing on the behaviour of parties, the findings suggest that they did exhibit a more responsive role towards the general public as strategies overall differed from non-turbulent times. However, differences not only across countries but most interestingly across party families were identified. Some parties were more likely to respond following the preferences of the electorate than others. Moreover, some of these differences (e.g. radical right and the labour issue) refute established literature beliefs. The results of this dissertation have important implications not only in terms of the understanding of party competition behaviour but most importantly in terms of responsiveness and democracy functioning for both turbulent and routinary times.

AB - In March 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic altered the world, becoming a challenge not only as a public health emergency but also as a social,economic, and political crisis. The measures implemented and also the high unpredictability of the crisis, increased insecurity among the population in terms ofhealth, finances, and labour among others. Population, therefore, relied on thepolitical elites to address their concerns. At the same time, political elites had tonavigate an unknown crisis, act and position themselves. Taking advantage of the existing party competition and political responsiveness literature, I offer insights into how political parties behaved, in terms of both position and issue attention, during the first stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, I provide early evidence of how political parties in Europe reacted to the increasing subjective insecurity that the population worldwide experienced with the outbreak of the pandemic. To do so, I pose the following overall research question: How did political parties compete with each other during the COVID-19 pandemic? In times of disruption, we can expect political parties toeither adopt specific strategies targeted at the novel crisis or exhibit similar behaviour to normal times. Hence, the interest lies in whether the pandemic altered (‘crisis politics’) or not (‘politics as usual’) party competition patterns in Europe. To evaluate the potential expectations, I first put into context the experience of insecurity from the electorate’s side (paper 1). Then I analyse the overall behaviour of parties in terms of issue attention (paper 2) to later focus on one specific issue (paper 3), labour. Finally, I take a key issue during the pandemic, the tradeoff between health and the economy, to study how congruent were political parties with the electorate (paper 4). The results of the dissertation indicate that insecurity is unequally distributed and that therefore the behaviour of political elites is crucial to alleviate this setting, especially in periods of crisis. Focusing on the behaviour of parties, the findings suggest that they did exhibit a more responsive role towards the general public as strategies overall differed from non-turbulent times. However, differences not only across countries but most interestingly across party families were identified. Some parties were more likely to respond following the preferences of the electorate than others. Moreover, some of these differences (e.g. radical right and the labour issue) refute established literature beliefs. The results of this dissertation have important implications not only in terms of the understanding of party competition behaviour but most importantly in terms of responsiveness and democracy functioning for both turbulent and routinary times.

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KW - COVID-19

KW - Party Competition

KW - Insecurity

KW - Issue Competition

KW - Issue Attention

U2 - 10.21996/5kbw-w140

DO - 10.21996/5kbw-w140

M3 - Ph.D. thesis

PB - Syddansk Universitet. Det Samfundsvidenskabelige Fakultet

ER -

Party Competition during the COVID-19 pandemic: politics as usual or crisis politics?

Abstract

Note vedr. afhandling

Dokumenter og links

Fingeraftryk

Relaterede publikationer

Riding the COVID-19 Wave? Issue Attention during the Pandemic

Citationsformater