Elections and leadership

The impact of Coronavirus on the Democratic Process

Abstract

Covid-19 has affected politics around the world, in how it impacts elections, electability, and how it affects the democratic process of a sitting administration. This article aims to answer the question of how exactly the Covid-19 Pandemic has affected many aspects of democracy around the world. This article is based on statistics and literature that examine the effect of pandemics on every facet of democracy. What is clear is that the political processes of various nation states have been disrupted by the pandemic, which has a significant impact on the conduction and outcomes of elections. The paper draws some comparisons between Covid-19 and the 1918 flu pandemic, popularly referred to as the Spanish flu. The analysis of past literature on legitimacy, historical pandemic response, as well as the usage of polling data are the methodological tools for this paper.