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Cited by 91Populism, Right-Wing MovementsPublic Administration and Political AnalysisPolitical Theory and Democracy

Best in Covid: Populists in the Time of Pandemic

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Buštíková, Lenka, Baboš, Pavol·2020·Politics and Governance
DOI 10.17645/pag.v8i4.3424
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Abstract

How do populists govern in crisis? We address this question by analyzing the actions of technocratic populists in power during the first wave of the novel coronavirus crisis in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. We identify three features of the populist pandemic response. First, populists bypassed established, institutionalized channels of crisis response. Second, they engaged in erratic yet responsive policy making. These two features are ubiquitous to populism. The third feature, specific to technocratic populism, is the politicization of expertise in order to gain legitimacy. Technocratic populists in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia weaponized medical expertise for political purposes.

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  • Illiberal politicians prioritize immediate voter needs over governance.

    “illiberal politicians prioritize immediate voter needs over governance (Buštíková and Baboš 2020;Grzymala-Busse and Nalepa 2019).”

    From Varieties of Illiberal Backlash in Central Europe (2023) · cites this paper as Buštíková and Baboš 2020

    Section 2, “Technocratic Populism,” contrasts populists’ short-term responses to voter demands with responsible governments’ provision of long-term public goods. Section 5 says Matovič catered to immediate voter needs even when doing so undermined his governance. The paper makes this point about populists, particularly the leaders it studies, rather than illiberal politicians generally. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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Cited by

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Authors
Buštíková, L., & Baboš, P.
Affiliations
  • Arizona State University (US)
  • Comenius University Bratislava (SK)
ORCID
Venue
Politics and Governance
Publisher
Cogitatio
Published
2020-12-17
Volume
8
Issue
4
Pages
496-508
ISSN
2183-2463 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.17645/pag.v8i4.3424
OpenAlex
W3112919562
Cited by
91
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 4
FWCI
55.24
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Politics and Governance (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Social Science Open Access Repository (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences) (submittedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
  • Akademie Věd České Republiky
  • Agentúra na Podporu Výskumu a Vývoja (APVV-17-0464)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Populism, Right-Wing Movements
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Public Administration and Political Analysis
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Political Theory and Democracy
Keywords
populism, COVID-19 pandemic, crisis governance, pandemic response, medical expertise, government legitimacy, Czech Republic, Slovakia, policy making

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