Competence in crisis: what happens after the rally-round-the-flag?

Daniel Devine, Will Jennings, Gerry Stoker and Jennifer Gaskell

Chapter 20 in Handbook on Trust in Public Governance, 2025, pp 331-343 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: COVID-19 generated a surge in expressed public trust in government and political leaders, referred to as a rally-round-the-flag effect. But what happens after that surge, as the crisis unfolds? Focusing on political trust, this chapter identifies and tests four aspects of the rally-round-the-flag phenomenon. Is it driven by patriotism, social solidarity, and threat perception, all factors with a strong emotional or affective dimension? Or is it driven more by an evaluation of competence: that trust is given to a politician or government that is considered to be acting in the interests of citizens by dealing with the pandemic effectively? Based on national surveys conducted in three countries significantly hit by COVID-19 – the US, UK, and Italy – we find that political trust judgements are driven by perceived competence in dealing with the crisis rather than emotive anxiety about the crisis. Many fearful citizens do not lose their heads; they use them.

Keywords: Trust; Crisis; COVID; Fear; Affective (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781802201390
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