Covid-19 : crisis, accountability and support for populist-authoritarian governments in Poland and Hungary

Sata, Robert (author), Źerkowska-Balas, Marta (author)

We examine how pandemic crisis management has affected public support in the democratic backsliding members of the EU – Poland and Hungary. We claim the first, immediate effect of the pandemic is to “rally around flag” but since populist illiberal governments adopt authoritarian measures, the ongoing pandemic brings to the fore populists' failure/ineffective crisis management, and thus public dissatisfaction should erode support for the incumbents. Relying on original survey data collected during the Covid-19 pandemic, we test several possible sources of dissatisfaction: the state of the healthcare; the economy; corruption and abuse of power; and distorted communication/false information on the crisis. Citizens dissatisfied with governing populist parties’ performance should be willing to punish the “guilty” party withdrawing their support, yet we find partisan preferences affect government accountability evaluations and leave supporters immune to policy negative effects. Comparing Hungary to Poland, we see the more polarized society is, the more likely extraordinary circumstances will only reinforce divisions in society and strengthen incumbents.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Covid-19, autocratization, public health, accountability, democratic backsliding, partisanship, public support
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Geographic coverage: Poljska; Madžarska
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 97-120
• Numbering: Vol. 18, no. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-179320
• UDC: 321.01:616.98:578.834
• ISSN on article: 1338-1385
• COBISS.SI-ID: 267955203
• Publication date in RUL: 10.02.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of comparative politics
• Publisher: Department of Political Science, Center for Analysis of Administrative-Political Processes and Institutions, Alma Mater Europea-European Centre Maribor (AMEU-ECM)
• ISSN: 1338-1385
• COBISS.SI-ID: 29224285

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Covid-19

Abstract

V prispevku analiziramo kako je krizno upravljanje med pandemijo covid-19 vplivalo na javno podporo v demokratično nazadujočih članicah EU – Poljski in Madžarski. Trdimo, da je prvi, takojšnji učinek pandemije "združevanje okoli zastave", toda ker populistične neliberalne vlade sprejemajo avtoritarne ukrepe, pandemija postavlja v ospredje neuspeh populistov in neučinkovito krizno upravljanje, zato bi moralo nezadovoljstvo javnosti zmanjšati podporo politike, ki je na oblasti. Na podlagi izvirnih anketnih podatkov, zbranih v času pandemije covid-19, testiramo več možnih virov nezadovoljstva: stanje v zdravstvu, gospodarstvo, korupcija in zloraba oblasti in izkrivljena komunikacija oziroma lažne informacije. Državljani, ki so nezadovoljni z delovanjem vladajočih populističnih strank, bi morali biti pripravljeni kaznovati "krivca", vendar ugotavljamo, da strankarske preference vplivajo na ocene odgovornosti vlade in puščajo podpornike imune na negativne učinke politike. Če primerjamo Madžarsko s Poljsko, vidimo, da bolj kot je družba polarizirana, večja je verjetnost, da bodo izredne okoliščine okrepile delitve v družbi in s tem tudi obstoječe oblasti.

• Keywords: Covid-19, odgovornost, strankarstvo, javna podpora, demokratično nazadovanje, antidemokratičnost, avtokratizacija