Public Support and Illiberal Behavior of Right-wing Populist Governments during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Can right-wing populist governments exploit a health crisis? Or does a health crisis make them more vulnerable to losses of public support? Departing from anecdotal evidence that right-wing populist governments in Europe seem to have lost public support during the pandemic while non-populist governments did not, I develop the argument that this loss in support for right-wing populist governments derives from specific features of their governance that I identify as “illiberal behavior”.