TY - JOUR
T1 - The Strategic Use of Narratives and Governance of the COVID-19 Pandemic in major autocratisers in Europe
AU - Soyaltin Colella, Digdem
AU - Sert, Deniz
N1 - Open Access via the Taylor and Francis Open Select agreement
PY - 2024/1/23
Y1 - 2024/1/23
N2 - By the end of 2022, scholars had published heavily on authoritarian consolidation at the time of COVID-19 and explored how governments adopted measures weakening democratic checks and balances yet strengthened their regimes during the COVID crisis. Yet, we do not know much about how political leaders narrated the pandemic in their domestic and foreign policy choices in a way that reinforces their power. By focusing on the major autocratizers in Europe (Hungary, Poland, Turkey, and Serbia) whose democracy scores have fallen the most over the last ten years, we reveal a set of influential narratives identified in the discourses of state leaders and government representatives which were constructed around the governance of the COVID-19 pandemic. These narratives were utilised by political leaders to legitimize their repressive policies geared towards controlling the society, and to contest the European Union (EU) in particular and the liberal democratic order in general.
AB - By the end of 2022, scholars had published heavily on authoritarian consolidation at the time of COVID-19 and explored how governments adopted measures weakening democratic checks and balances yet strengthened their regimes during the COVID crisis. Yet, we do not know much about how political leaders narrated the pandemic in their domestic and foreign policy choices in a way that reinforces their power. By focusing on the major autocratizers in Europe (Hungary, Poland, Turkey, and Serbia) whose democracy scores have fallen the most over the last ten years, we reveal a set of influential narratives identified in the discourses of state leaders and government representatives which were constructed around the governance of the COVID-19 pandemic. These narratives were utilised by political leaders to legitimize their repressive policies geared towards controlling the society, and to contest the European Union (EU) in particular and the liberal democratic order in general.
U2 - 10.1080/19448953.2024.2307820
DO - 10.1080/19448953.2024.2307820
M3 - Article
SN - 1944-8953
JO - Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies
JF - Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies
ER -