Nationalists tend to copy each other’s responses to Covid-19 pandemic: Analysis

According to a review analysis carried out by researchers at the University of Texas, nationalistic governments around the globe are more likely to emulate other nationalistic governments in responding to the pandemic.

Evan Mistur, a UT Arlington assistant professor in the College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs, outlined his findings under the title ‘The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Nationalist Emulation During the Covid-19 pandemic’. The study was published in the Journal of Chinese Political Science.

He collaborated on the paper with John Wagner Givens, assistant professor at Kennesaw State (Ga.) University.

“While leaders often claim responses are based on the best available advice from scientists and public health experts, recent policy diffusion research suggests that countries are emulating the Covid-19 policies of their neighbours and political peers instead of responding to domestic conditions,” Mistur said in his analysis.

The researcher elaborated on nationalism and said it is an ideology that values national identity over belonging to other groups. Nationalism further seeks distinction and preservation of that identity “by the nation, for the nation”.

At its most extreme, it rejects the status quo and seeks to reassert the will of an imagined national community over a political or cultural space.

He said despite varying differences such as in demography, political system, and socio-political environment, many countries with nationalistic tendencies duplicate each other's changing policies during the pandemic.

Mistur said: “We determined that leaders in those nationalistic countries are not necessarily letting scientific data drive their decision-making during the pandemic. We looked at countries like France and Italy, both of which had total lockdowns. We also looked at the US and Brazil, which represented that nationalistic turn.”

“Nationalist regimes seem to favour certain approaches toward the pandemic. They emulate each other.”

Givens said these results show “not only new mechanisms of policy diffusion but also growing international cooperation among nationalist regimes and leaders.”

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