Coronavirus and Politics: Demands and Values in the Age of the Pandemic

The article discusses the political eff ects of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in the framework of Terror Management Theory. Growing fears caused by the pandemic provoke mortality salience across the globe. Political and psychological eff ects of mortality salience are manifested in the strengthening of conservative orientations and support for status quo. Awareness of mortality provides support to power structures, incumbent political leaders, strengthening patriotic attitudes and rejection of external groups. The pandemic strengthens the eff ect of rallying around the fl ag and results in an increase in the ratings of ruling political leaders. The growing support for political leaders confi rms the orientation towards maintaining the status quo and conservative attitudes. In a pandemic, patriotic feeling, the demand for order, the growth of distrust of fellow citizens, and the rejection of freedoms in favor of security come to the fore. In the context of mortality salience orientation to support specifi c types of political leadership is intensifying. It seems that in the near future, electorally successful types of leaders will include two major types. Firstly, politicians inclined to charismatic control of the trust of their supporters based on a confi dent and uncompromising orientation to their own ego, most often on the basis of previously gained fame. Secondly, those politicians who are capable of expressing simple human closeness to ordinary people and are focused on creating and maintaining social ties with a constituency. Charismatic leadership is oriented towards personal decision-making at leader’s own peril and risk. The second type is associated with horizontal dialogue with citizens. and creating the maximum numberof personal connections. In the current situation, the role of personal qualities of leaders will only grow, both as objects of attitudes and aspirations on the part of the masses, and as subjects of the political process, making political decisions that are crucial for society.

Terror Management Theory, Charismatic Leadership, Conservative Shift

1. Anson, Jacqueline M., Tom Pyszczynski, Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg. “Political Ideology in the 21st Century: A Terror Management Perspective on Maintenance and Change of the Status Quo”. In Series in Political Psychology. Social and Psychological Bases of Ideology and System Justifi cation, edited by John T. Jost, Aaron C. Kay, and Hulda Thorisdottir, 210–240. Oxford University Press, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:os o/9780195320916.003.009.

2. Becker, Ernest. The Denial of Death. New-York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.

3. Campbell, Joseph J. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Third Edition. New World Library, 2008.

4. Cohen, Florette, Daniel M. Ogilvie, Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski. (2005), “American Roulette: The Eff ect of Reminders of Death on Support for George W. Bush in the 2004 Presidential Election.” Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy 5, no. 1 (November 2005): 177–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/ j.1530-2415.2005.00063.x.

5. Cohen, Florette, Sheldon Solomon, Molly Maxfi eld, Tom Pyszczynski, and Jeff Greenberg. “Fatal Attraction: The Eff ects of Mortality Salience on Evaluations of Charismatic, Task-Oriented, and Relationship-Oriented Leaders.” Psychological Science 15, no. 12 (December 2004): 846–51. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0956- 7976.2004.00765.x.

6. .Crowson, H. Michael. “Are All Conservatives Alike? A Study of the Psychological Correlates of Cultural and Economic Conservatism.” The Journal of Psychology 143, no. 5 (2009): 449–463. https://doi.org/10.3200/ JRL.143.5.449–463.

7. Davis, Mark, Paul Flowers, Davina Lohm, Emily Waller, Niamh Stephenson. “Immunity, Biopolitics and Pandemics: Public and Individual Responses to the Threat to Life.” Body & Society 22, no. 4 (December 2016): 130–154. https://doi. org/10.1177/1357034X14556155.

8. Furedi, Frank. “Fear and Security: A Vulnerability– Led Policy Response.” Social Policy & Administration 42, no. 6 (October 2008): 645–661. https://doi.org/10.1111/ j.1467-9515.2008.00629.x.

9. Giddens, Anthony. The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990.

10. Hale, Henry E. “Russian Patronal Politics Beyond Putin.” Daedalus 146, no. 2 (Spring 2017): 30–40. https:// doi.org/10.1162/DAED_a_00432.

11. Harvell, Lindsey A., and Gwendelyn S. Nisbett, eds. Denying Death. An Interdisciplinary Approach to Terror Management Theory. New York: Routledge, 2016. https:// doi.org/10.4324/9781315641393.

12. Kamradt-Scott, Adam, and Colin McInnes. “The Securitisation of Pandemic Infl uenza: Framing, Security and Public Policy.” Global Public Health 7, no. sup2 (October 2012): 95–110. https://doi.org/10.1080/174416 92.2012.725752.

13. Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern Condition: a Report on Knowledge. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.

14. Pearson, Carol S. The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By (expanded edition). New York: Harper, 1989.

15. Pearson, C. and M. Mark. The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001.

16. Routledge, Clay, and Matthew Vess, eds. Handbook of Terror Management Theory. Academic Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/C2016-0-02231-3.

17. Wodak, Ruth. The Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean. London: SAGE, 2015. http:// dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446270073.