Populism, Vaccine Hesitancy, and Threats to Unconsolidated Democracy: Some Evidence from Ukraine

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the politicization of vaccine hesitancy movements proved to be a new challenge for the liberal democratic order. Their adherents tend to espouse anti-establishment conspiracy theories to the extent that vaccine hesitancy is being consciously included in the toolkit of anti-systemic political actors. Moreover, fragile unconsolidated democracies seem especially vulnerable because this development provokes new societal fault lines and provides additional resources and opportunities to opponents of the liberal status quo.
However, is it vaccine hesitancy per se or are some other political beliefs to be blamed for the illiberal drift? Using original survey data collected in Ukraine before the eruption of the Russo-Ukrainian war, Ivan Gomza studies the relationship between vaccine hesitancy and the intensity of populist sentiments. In addition, he examines political preferences nurtured by the vaccine-hesitant community regarding essential issues of Ukrainian political debate before 2022, namely attitudes toward European integration and cooperation with NATO.
Presenter:
Dr. Ivan Gomza is Academic Director of the Public Policy & Governance Program at Kyiv School of Economics. He received his PhD in political science from the Joint Franco-Ukrainian Program at the University of Paris X-Nanterre and Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Dr. Gomza was a fellow of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and at the Fulbright Faculty Development Program. His scholarly interests are democratization, authoritarian regimes, nationalism, contentious politics, and good governance. He has authored two books (including The Republic of Decadent Days: Ideology of French Integral Nationalism in the Third Republic, Kyiv: Krytyka, 2021, in Ukrainian) and several articles on Ukrainian nationalism, authoritarian politics, and social movements for outlets such as Problems of Post-Communism, Journal of Democracy, and Nationality Papers. Dr. Gomza sits on Communist and Post-Communist Studies journal editorial board. He teaches eight courses at Kyiv School of Economics and Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and frequently gives public lectures.
Moderator:
Dr. Elizabeth Wishnick is a Senior Research Scientist in the China and Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Division at the Center for Naval Analyses, on leave from her position as Professor of Political Science at Montclair State University. Dr. Wishnick also is a Senior Research Scholar at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University. Dr. Wishnick has dual regional expertise on China and Russia and is an expert on Chinese foreign policy, Sino-Russian relations, Asian security (including Taiwan and Russia), and Arctic geopolitics. She has written about digital power and Taiwan’s response to COVID-19, as well as about vaccine politics and the Sino-Russian partnership. Her book project, China’s Risk China’s Risk: Oil, Water, Food and Regional Security (forthcoming Columbia University Press) addresses the security consequences of energy, water and food risks in China for its Eurasian neighbors, a topic she explores in a related policy blog, www.chinasresourcerisks.com. She received a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University, an M.A. in Russian and East European Studies from Yale University, and a B.A. from Barnard College. She speaks Mandarin, Russian, and French and recently spent six months in Vladivostok, Russia, Shanghai, China, and Almaty, Kazakhstan as a part of a Fulbright Global Scholar award.