I Trends on COVID-19 and Populism

Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis has challenged political and health institutions around the world. Political scientists have been particularly interested in, among several other interconnected issues, the pandemic’s relationship to populism. This trend article provides an up-to-date general classification of the current literature on COVID-19 and populism. In order to systematize the diverse approaches, it divides research into five macro-areas. Finally, it points out the methodologies employed by the literature, the results obtained so far, and the remaining challenges to be analyzed. One of the most significant conclusions is that the politicization of COVID-19 and the high levels of social and political polarization observed during the pandemic strongly affected the responses of different institutions, which led to significant consequences in terms of the relationships between levels of government.