Hoy, mientras echaba un vistazo a las noticias de ciencia, me encontré con una pequeña (pero grata) sorpresa: al parecer, el apoyo al populismo entre los votantes ha caído significativamente desde el inicio de la pandemia (en inglés). Ahí van algunas de las afirmaciones que me parecieron interesantes:

They say that threats posed by the pandemic saw a "technocratic" shift in political authority worldwide, with increased trust in government, and in experts such as scientists and civil servants. Yet faith in the democratic process continued to falter.

(...)

n average, populist leaders have seen a 10 percentage point drop between the spring of 2020 and the last quarter of 2021, while ratings for non-populists—on average—returned to around pre-pandemic levels.

Electoral support also plunged for their parties—seen most clearly in Europe, where the proportion of people intending to vote for a populist party* has fallen by an average of 11 percentage points to 27%.

Overall, across Europe, early lockdowns saw voting intention for incumbent parties increase. Yet all the continent's governing populists—from Italy's Five Star to Hungary's Fidezs—bucked the trend with the largest declines in support.

Support for Europe's opposition populist parties also fell over the pandemic—by 5 pp on average to 11% – while it rose for "mainstream" opposition.

Researchers suggest several factors for populism's fading appeal. One is simply the botch job made of the pandemic by populist governments: from Bolsonaro's mask veto to Trump's "bleach injection" suggestion.

The report's polling shows the public considered populist leaders to be less trustworthy sources of virus-related information than centrist counterparts.

(...)

Researchers also found that political "tribalism"—fertile ground for populists—has declined in most countries. The percentage of party supporters expressing a "strong dislike" of those who vote for opposing politicians fell in most nations (although not the US) during the crisis.

En general, como decía, se trata, creo, de buenas noticias. Habrá que ver cuánto dura. {enlace a esta entrada}