Section 7 – Elezioni e Comportamento di Voto
Panel 7.4 How did we change? Evolution of political attitudes, opinions and party preferences during the Covid-19 pandemic
Panel chairs: Nicola Maggini and Cristiano Vezzoni (University of Milan)
In a context already characterized by popular distrust and political dissatisfaction, the 2020-2021 biennium has represented a further, challenging test for democracy. Indeed, the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented and exceptional challenge not only for society as a whole but for political systems in specific.
The panel aims to stimulate a discussion on the effects of the pandemic on public opinion, voting behavior and political attitudes. The underlying scientific question concerns whether classic theories of political behavior can help understand the new context or whether it is necessary to develop new theoretical frameworks to cope with it.
The panel invites papers that analyze empirical data gathered during the Covid-19 crisis, also relying on innovative methods and approaches. In particular, we invite papers making use of the ResPOnsE COVID-19 data collected by the spsTREND “Hans Schadee” lab at the Department of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Milan (public data release June 2022, information about the questionnaires already available at https://www.spstrend.it/progetto-response-covid-19/). The ResPOnsE COVID-19 project is meant to monitor the development of public opinion during the Covid-19 emergency in Italy, using a Rolling Cross-Section Panel Design collecting daily data over a period of two years (2020-2021).
Possible topics of interest are (but are not limited to):
- Propensities to vote and vote intentions
- Politics, institutions, and trust
- Covid-19 containment policies, trust in science, and vaccines
- Attitudes towards national and regional governments
- Attitudes towards democracy
- Europeanism/nationalism
- Social cohesion and social conflict
Covering the aforementioned, indicative list of topics, the panel has a preferential focus on the public opinion dynamics of the Italian case. Nonetheless, it also welcomes proposals dealing with comparative research or even investigating recent developments in foreign case studies.
Proposals (and then papers) can be submitted in both English and Italian.
Scadenze e linee guida
Chi volesse partecipare con un proprio contributo è invitato a inviare un abstract (10000 caratteri, spazi inclusi) entro il 22 maggio 2022 esclusivamente attraverso l’area riservata MySISP. Per maggiori informazioni su come inviare l’abstract si veda il seguente link. Il Convegno SISP 2022 si terrà presso il Dipartimento di Scienze politiche di Sapienza Università di Roma, dall’ 8 al 10 settembre 2022.
Photo by Dan Dimmock on Unsplash