Fear, pathogens and political order

Richard Ned Lebow

doi:10.1332/204378921X16182486684235

Fear, pathogens and political order

Richard Ned Lebow^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

War Studies

King's College London

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

I distinguish fear from fright and explore the role of both in the COVID-19 pandemic. I argue that fear generates strong public demands for protection and that these pressures can constrain or enable leaders depending on the circumstances, capabilities, but above all, their framing of the problem. I focus more on countries that performed badly because their leaders failed to gather or evaluate relevant information. To explain this behaviour I draw on motivational psychology and political ideology. My accounts are merely suggestive as they are not the result of data gathered from carefully paired and exhaustively researched cases. I conclude by offering reflections on four of the six propositions offered by the editors in their introduction.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	525-543
Number of pages	19
Journal	Global Discourse
Volume	11
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1332/204378921X16182486684235
Publication status	Published - 2021

Keywords

COVID-19
Fear
Leadership
Motivational psychology
Trade-offs
Trust

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10.1332/204378921X16182486684235

Cite this

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Fear, pathogens and political order

Abstract

Keywords

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