Contesting Covid: The Ideological Bases of Partisan Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic

How do political parties respond to external shocks? Using an original survey of political parties across Europe conducted in June 2020 and CHES data on partisan ideological positioning, we argue that the pre-existing ideological stances of Europe’s political parties shaped their response to emerging Covid-19 policy issues, including the tension between economic normalization and containment, legal versus voluntary enforcement, and the role of science in policymaking. We find that party ideology powerfully predicts how parties, both in government and in opposition, responded to the pandemic.