Uncooperative society, uncooperative politics or both? Trust, polarization, populism and COVID-19 deaths across European regions.

ABSTRACT: Why have some territories performed better than others in the fight against COVID-19? This paper uses a novel dataset on excess mortality, trust and political polarization for 165 European regions to explore the role of social and political divisions in the remarkable regional differences in excess mortality during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, we investigate whether regions characterized by a low social and political trust witnessed a higher excess mortality. Second, we argue that it is not only levels, but also polarization in trust among citizens - in particular, between government supporters and non-supporters - that matters for understanding why people in some regions have adopted more pro-healthy behaviour. Third, we explore the partisan make-up of regional parliame

SUBMITTER: Charron N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9111141 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature