Acceptance of Political Restrictions During the COVID-19 Pandemic - A Comparative Study of Austria and Hungary, the Manifestation of Political Polarization

Susánszky, Pál and Kittel, Bernhard and Kopper, Ákos (2023) Acceptance of Political Restrictions During the COVID-19 Pandemic - A Comparative Study of Austria and Hungary, the Manifestation of Political Polarization. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGY. pp. 1-26. ISSN 0020-7152 (print); 1745-2554 (online) (In Press)

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Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, some governments took measures to restrict political liberties, claiming that these restrictions were necessary to contain the spread of the virus. In this study, we scrutinize differences in citizens’ willingness to accept three types of political restrictions: restricting the media, banning protests, and introducing extensive state surveillance. We focus on two European countries: Austria and Hungary. While we find that perceived health threats, political values, ideological orientation, and political trust are important predictors of accepting political restrictions, we also find that citizens differ in their willingness to support the three types of restrictions depending on whether the given measure affects them directly. We also find differences between Austria and Hungary concerning the way political trust and political values affect the acceptance of restrictions, which may be rooted in the larger polarization of Hungarian society. Furthermore, we observe that perceived health threats, political values, ideological orientation, and political trust are important predictors of accepting political restrictions.

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