New Article: Economic costs of pandemic strategy impact view on democratic rights

With Agustin Goenaga (Lund University)

We find that Danish business-owners, whose incomes were more vulnerable to the economic costs of a strict lockdown, expressed lower trust and satisfaction in the national pandemic strategy and greater concern about the concentration of power by the government, compared to all other Danish occupational categories as well as to business-owners in Sweden. Our findings thus indicate that exposure to the economic costs of pandemic strategies was not only associated with more critical views towards public health measures, but that it also made citizens more likely to see them as violations to democratic rights.

New article: Danes trusted their government more than the Swedes during the pandemic

Did the different public-health policies that Sweden and Denmark pursued in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic result in different levels of public trust in governments’ and health authorities’ ability to guide the two countries safely through the pandemic? How did the level of trust change as the pandemic unfolded? And were there any cross-country differences in the
correlates of trust?

New work out with Johannes Lindvall answers these questions. Download it here:

What role does political governance institution play for political attention?

With Dan Mønster (Aarhus University), I have a new working paper out. Below the abstract.

What role does political governance institution (i.e. the local, national, and European governance level) play for political attention? Using eye tracking in a laboratory experiment (N = 63), we pioneer a study into exploring the role of governance institution on attention to political news, holding political content constant. We find that fixation time significantly increases when reading about the EU compared to the national and local governance institutions. The political topic (here immigration and climate) only has a significant impact as an interaction effect with the national and local levels. Sex and attitudes to EU integration play no significant role. We discuss these findings, including the prospects andlimitations using eye tracking in political science research.

Download it here

Covid-19 strategy: Danish and Swedish differences

Do people trust the politicians and health authorities to guide them safely through the pandemic? Do they find their national strategy is sufficient? And what do they prefer: Saving the economy or preventing disease spread?

Lund University and Djøf Public Affairs publish report on the perception of Covid-19 initiatives in Denmark and Sweden. Read the full report here: https://www.djoef.dk/-/media/documents/djoef/p/paragraf_20_april_2020_2_a4_web.ashx

The results were discussed in P1 morgen (9.30) and DR2 Deadline, 18. April 2020