Health Policies of Populists During COVID-19 Pandemic

Various claims have been made as to whether populist regimes will succeed in dealing with the pandemic. Particularly in the first period of the pandemic, all populists were depicted identical and, as a generality, it was claimed that these governments will completely ignore the recommendations by specialists. The current situation demonstrates that populists’ approach to and health policies for the pandemic across the globe manifests differences as much as similarities. Moreover, we can observe that populist governments experience more difficulty than non-populist governments in employing a consistent and efficient health policy. Then, what are the reasons for populists governments’ inconsistent and occasionally delayed preventive attitude when compared to mainstream goverments? What are the differences among populist governments in dealing withthe pandemic and where do they stem from? In this analysis, Didem Seyis answersthese questions by referring to the USA and Turkey cases.

(The analysis is available only in Turkish.)