Affective Governance During the COVID-19 Crisis: Building Leadership, Trust, and Good Citizens

Abstract

Concepts such as emotional govern­ance, affective citizenship and trans­formational leadership point at the way governments are addressing the COVID-19 crisis from an emotional perspective. The study takes the Ital­ian and Spanish leaders as case stud­ies, analysing TV speeches, press con­ferences and parliamentary addresses, on the one hand, and Facebook posts, on the other hand. The results show that the two cases adopt different emotional repertoires, depending on the historical and cultural leanings but also on the style of leadership they embrace. This style reverberates in the relationship they seek to build with citizens to stimulate compliance with their decisions and in the use of Facebook to promote positive mes­sages and counter the spreading of misinformation. The article also shows how affective governance and style of leadership contribute to the normative definition of good and deviant citizens in critical historical junctures. In par­ticular, the diffusion of fake news (and not just their manufacturing) is de­picted as anti-patriotic and non-civic. We argue that the crisis has catalysed processes and trends that were al­ready at play, while at the same time defining a new trait of leadership in the ability to promote cross-genera­tional solidarity and sense of belong­ing beyond national boundaries. Keywords: citizenship, communica­tion, emotions, governance, leader­ship, solidarity.