The Politics of Covid-19 Containment Policies in Europe

12 Pages Posted: 30 Nov 2021 Last revised: 22 Mar 2023

See all articles by Thomas Plümper

Thomas Plümper

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Eric Neumayer

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Abstract

Do partisan preferences, the electoral system, checks on government, political fragmentation, civil liberties and trust contribute to explaining the stringency of containment policies in European countries? Empirical studies suggest that political science theories have helped very little in understanding European democracies’ political response to the pandemic’s first wave. We argue in this article that the negligible effect of politics, broadly defined, is confined to the first wave and that during subsequent waves over the autumn 2020 to spring 2021 season some of the above political factors contribute to our understanding of variation in countries’ response. Employing a sample of 26 European democracies analyzing daily data on the stringency of adopted containment policies we provide evidence that politics does not matter during the first wave but is substantively important during later waves.

Keywords: COVID-19, second wave, containment policies, stringency

Suggested Citation

Plümper, Thomas and Neumayer, Eric, The Politics of Covid-19 Containment Policies in Europe. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3973782 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3973782

Thomas Plümper (Contact Author)

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Eric Neumayer

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://https://ericneumayer.wordpress.com/

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