Objectives

• Use experimental survey design to map the growth of populist, nationalist and authoritarian attitudes during the pandemic;
• Analyse the interaction between public attitudes to minority groups and the generation of inequality;
• Test hypotheses about the causal impact of crisis events on values and attitudes.

This study investigates populist, nationalist and authoritarian attitudes in Europe and the Americas during the Covid-19 crisis. The proposed comparative survey experiment compares the separate causal effects of inequality, immigration, and perceptions of how the pandemic was managed by governments on populist, nationalist and illiberal values within national populations.

Extant theory identifies three broad sets of causal mechanisms that generate populist attitudes:

1. economic strain and inequality,
2. immigration and perceived threats to national culture, and
3. lack of trust in governments and/or democracy.

A research design incorporating comparative survey experiments will allow evaluation of the extent to which each of these factors generate populist attitudes within national populations, and how this varies between countries.

An experimental social survey will be undertaken in all participating countries, to allow for a transatlantic comparative perspective.

Team members working in Cluster III

Adalberto Cardoso (Lead Investigator of Cluster 3) 

Eric Jones (Co-Lead) 

Marina Fontolan

Leandro R. Tessler

Alvaro P. Crósta

Jana Leal

James Foley

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