COVID-19 and authoritarianism: two strategies of engaging fear

  • This paper considers ways in which rulers can respond to, generate, or exploit fear of COVID-19 infection for various ends, and in particular distinguishes between ‘fear-invoking’ and ‘fear-minimising’ strategies. It examines historical precedent for executive overreach in crises and then moves on to look in more detail at some specific areas where fear is being mobilised or generated: in ways that lead to the suspension of civil liberties; that foster discrimination against minorities; and that boost the personality cult of leaders and limit criticism or competition. Finally, in the Appendix, we present empirical work, based on the results of an original survey in Brazil, that provides support for the conjectures in the previous sections. While it is too early to tell what the longer-term outcomes of the changes we note will be, our purpose here is simply to identify some warning signs that threaten the key institutions and values of democracy.

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Author:Jonathan Wolff, David Elitzer, Anna Petherick, Maya Tudor, Katie Tyner
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-679863
DOI:https://doi.org/10.21248/gjn.13.02.259
ISSN:1835-6842
Parent Title (English):Global justice : theory, practice, rhetoric
Publisher:The Global Justice Network
Place of publication:[S.l]
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2022/04/14
Date of first Publication:2022/04/14
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2022/05/09
Tag:11th September; Authoritarianism; Brazil; COVID-19; Civil liberties; Democracy; Fear-invoking; Fearminimising; India
Volume:13
Issue:2
Page Number:21
First Page:78
Last Page:98
HeBIS-PPN:496409514
Institutes:Gesellschaftswissenschaften / Gesellschaftswissenschaften
Dewey Decimal Classification:3 Sozialwissenschaften / 34 Recht / 340 Recht
6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoDeutsches Urheberrecht