COVID-Crisis as a Factor of Changes in Political Participation

Abstract

In this article, the author summarizes the results of the study on the COVID-19 impact of the pandemic on politi-cal participation, namely its mechanics and consequences. Due to the importance of this phenomenon for po-litical development and the unprecedented nature of the pandemic, this study is relevant and has novelty fea-tures. It is emphasized that the spread of coronavirus infection caused a large-scale COVID-crisis in many countries worldwide, distinguished by such characteristics as complexity, atemporality, non-linearity and disin-tegration. Simultaneously, it has become a crisis of public-power relations and a factor of changes in political participation. As the author argues, the COVID-crisis affected both electoral and protest participation of citizens in the countries studied by the author: in some cases it increased the level of public support for the ultra-right parties, in others – intensified direct civic actions.