Impact of COVID-19 on the State of Democracy

Abstract

Governments all over the world have introduced various instruments to limit the spread of COVID-19, including measures that temporarily restricted civil liberties. Some countries have used the pandemic to strengthen the power of the rulers. They adopted instruments, which would be difficult to implement in other situations, e.g. expanded the state surveillance or strengthened executive position in a political system. The crisis situation may justify the seizure of even more power by those already in power, leading to its further consolidation and democracy decline. However, other scenarios cannot be excluded. The COVID-19 crisis does not have to weaken democracy in the long run if the introduced measures meet the rules of the emergency situation – including their temporary nature and adequacy to the situation. The progress in democratisation as a result of COVID-19 is a less probable scenario but it must be also taken into consideration in some cases. The aim of the panel is to investigate a possible impact of the adopted anti-COVID-19 measures and mechanisms on the state of liberal democracy in different states in short- to long perspective. Both theoretical and empirical papers will be presented within the panel. In the latter case, the single case studies and comparative analyses are equally valuable contributions to the academic discussion on this increasingly important topic.

Title	Details
Impact of COVID-19 on the Autocratisation Processes – Theoretical Aspects	View Paper Details
Pandemic measures as tools of governance – case of Covid-19 pandemic in Poland	View Paper Details
The Czech Republic during the Covid-19 pandemic. Populism continues to run at full speed	View Paper Details