Performing Crisis? Trump, Populism and the GOP in the Age of Covid-19

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6266004
AutoresKenneth M Roberts (0000-0001-6325-6351, Cornell University, autor correspondente)
Ano2024
Volume59
Fascículo4
Páginas1052-1070
Data de publicação2024-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoGovernment and Opposition (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0017-257X • E-ISSN: 1477-7053
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/gov.2022.30
OpenAlexW4292833999
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas20
Referências citadas14

Although populist figures are often thought to thrive during crises that allow them to ‘perform’ decisive leadership, the US experience under Donald Trump during the COVID-19 crisis demonstrates that the opposite may sometimes occur. Despite its scientific and medical prowess, the US suffered more coronavirus cases and deaths than any other country in the world during the first year of the pandemic, and this abysmal performance was largely attributable to a failure of government. Fixated on the pandemic's economic effects and its potential political fallout, the Trump administration's framing of the crisis tried to minimize the public health emergency, externalize blame through a focus on the Chinese scapegoat and accuse the media and Democrats of hyping the pandemic to undermine Trump's presidency. In responding to the pandemic, Trump and his allies cast doubt on scientific and medical expertise that called for more aggressive testing, mask wearing and social-distancing measures. Trump delegated responsibility for crisis management to subnational governments and the private sector, and he politicized their efforts to regulate social behaviour in the public interest, intensifying partisan polarization

Blame · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Crisis management · Development economics · Economics · Framing (construction · Government (linguistics · Pandemic · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Populism · Presidency · Public relations · Scapegoat · Sociology · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · History · Law · Medicine · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Psychology · Social Psychology