Old and new cleavages in pandemic times

Work package 3 – Diagnosis

Work package 3 aims to map and analyse the social and geographical conflict lines generated in Europe by the Covid-19 pandemic. The impact of Covid-19 and ensuing economic crisis on social groups and member states will be investigated by exploring a new health-economy cleavage and its interactions with pre-existing rifts, including those originating from previous crises. The WP will analyse conflicting positions on, for example, lockdowns, measures of economic support, increasing public debt burden, and policies of equipment and vaccine distribution, through the lenses of group and country exposure to health and economic risk.

Lead

Daniele Caramani, Ernst B. Haas Chair of European Governance and Politics at the European University Institute, Florence, and Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Zurich

Timeline

Running from October 2022 to July 2024

Deliverables

Research paper: The health–economy divide: A structural analysis of sectoral affectedness and Covid-19 policy preferences in Europe

Research paper: Populism and the pandemic: The politicization of COVID-19 and cleavage agency among populist radical right parties