Date of Award

Fall 2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Political Science & Geography

Program/Concentration

Graduate Program in International studies

Committee Director

Regina Karp

Committee Member

Angelica J. Huizar

Committee Member

Matthew DiLorenzo

Committee Member

Tatiana Rizova

Abstract

On January 31, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public health emergency for only the sixth time in its history. On March 11, 2020, it was stated that COVID-19 constituted a pandemic. How did countries respond? This dissertation traces the evolution of national crisis narratives in four states and assesses their relative success. The findings of this study are that pandemic crisis narratives are not generalizable to all crisis situations but require a high level of compliance to be effective in stopping the crisis. There is no formula for government success, there are no decisive variables determining outcomes. The evidence shows that COVID mitigation measures were viewed as deeply personal, and compliance evaluated from cultural and identity perspectives. Neither carefully crafted national crisis narratives nor conspiracy theories appear to shape popular response to compliance demands.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/vq56-wf97

ISBN

9798381449044

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