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Populism in Times of Spectacularization of the Pandemic: How Populists in Germany and Brazil Tried to ‘Own the Virus’ but Failed

Author

Listed:
  • Erica Resende

    (Department of Politics, Brazilian War College, Rio de Janeiro 22290-270, RJ, Brazil)

  • Sybille Reinke de Buitrago

    (Geschäftsführung IKriS, Institut für Kriminalitäts- und Sicherheitsforschung (IKriS), 31582 Nienburg, Germany)

Abstract

Populism has been at the center of recent debates in political science and international relations scholarship. Recognized as a contested concept and framed as a new global phenomenon, populism emerged in the context of liberal democracies, where political actors inflate social antagonisms by putting the people against the elite. Facing a global health crisis where a sense of threat, uncertainty, and emergency has pushed normal politics into the realm of politics of crisis, populists have actively engaged in creating a spectacularization of failure—of science, institutions, experts, governments—vis-à-vis the new Coronavirus, and in creating doubts about and devaluing scientists, experts and governments. Issues such as mask mandates, lockdown measures, compulsory vaccination, medicine effectiveness, and vaccine certificates became politicized. That is, they have been taken from normal politics and made contingent and controversial in order to deepen already existing political divisions and polarization. Exploring the case of Germany and Brazil, we will show how populists tried to use the pandemic to forge divisions between the people and the elite (represented by scientists, health experts, and the press). This conceptual-empirical paper wishes to make a contribution to the debate on how populists brought scientific public health issues into their black-and-white, antagonistic vision of society and hence instrumentalized COVID-19 for their own political gain.

Suggested Citation

  • Erica Resende & Sybille Reinke de Buitrago, 2022. "Populism in Times of Spectacularization of the Pandemic: How Populists in Germany and Brazil Tried to ‘Own the Virus’ but Failed," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:13:y:2022:i:1:p:9-:d:1019198
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lipscy, Phillip Y., 2020. "COVID-19 and the Politics of Crisis," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(S1), pages 98-127, December.
    2. Drezner, Daniel W., 2020. "The Song Remains the Same: International Relations After COVID-19," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(S1), pages 18-35, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ramnath Reghunadhan, 2023. "Populist Protests and the Dynamic Zero-COVID Policy: (Re)emerging Pragmatic Populism in China," International Studies, , vol. 60(3), pages 296-312, July.

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