RAPID: Collaborative Research: COVID-19, Crises, and Support for the Rule of Law

RAPID：合作研究：COVID-19、危机和对法治的支持

• 批准号: 2027671
• 负责人: Michael Nelson
• 金额: $ 2.41万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-04-15 至 2021-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2027671&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Collaborative; Research; COVID; 19

The rule of law is at the foundation of modern liberal democracy. Crises like the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, however, pose a challenge to this long-standing norm that buttresses modern democracies the world over. In the midst of a crisis, a person’s support for the rule of law is tested as their fundamental concern for the health, safety, and welfare of themselves, their families, and their friends is pitted against an abstract belief that the government “check all the boxes” before carrying out potentially lifesaving policies. In these situations, one’s desire for decisive government action may overwhelm, and subsequently lead to a decline in, one’s commitment to abstract democratic principles like the rule of law. Consequently, evaluating how crises affect support for fundamental democratic norms is critical for understanding their impact on the health and stability of the liberal democratic order.This project leverages the COVID-19 outbreak to examine this relationship and determine (a) whether governmental responses to crises affect citizens’ support for the rule of law; (b) whether citizens’ faith in government efforts is buttressed or undermined in response to elite and expert cues; and (c) whether citizens’ attitudes change after a crisis has dissipated. Each of these theoretical aims is tied to one of three unique features of the research design, which relies upon surveys of European democracies. First, to examine the effects of governmental responses, the project will make collect survey data on support for the rule of law across four Western democracies in April 2020: Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Second, an original panel survey in Germany will enable the evaluation of changes to individual-level rule of law judgments in the short, medium, and long term. Lastly, embedded survey experiments will provide causal evidence on how elite and expert cues affect both the acceptance of policies and support for key aspects of the rule of law like compliance with laws and support for judicial constraints on executive and legislative power. Findings from each part of the project will provide insights into the individual-level dynamics crises activate in citizens’ relationship with democratic principles.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

法治是现代自由民主的基础。然而，冠状病毒（COVID-19）大流行等危机对这一支撑世界各地现代民主的长期规范构成了挑战。在危机中，一个人对法治的支持受到了考验，因为他们对自己、家人和朋友的健康、安全和福利的根本关注与政府在实施可能挽救生命的政策之前“检查所有盒子”的抽象信念相冲突。在这种情况下，人们对政府采取果断行动的渴望可能会压倒人们对法治等抽象民主原则的承诺，从而导致这种承诺的下降。因此，评估危机如何影响对基本民主规范的支持，对于理解危机对自由民主秩序的健康和稳定的影响至关重要。本项目利用COVID-19疫情来研究这种关系，并确定（a）政府对危机的反应是否影响公民对法治的支持;（B）公民对政府努力的信心是否因精英和专家的暗示而得到加强或削弱;（c）危机消散后公民的态度是否发生变化。这些理论目标中的每一个都与研究设计的三个独特特征之一有关，这依赖于对欧洲民主国家的调查。首先，为了研究政府回应的效果，该项目将于2020年4月收集四个西方民主国家对法治支持的调查数据：德国，西班牙，英国和美国。第二，在德国进行的一项原创小组调查将能够对个人层面的法治判决在短期、中期和长期的变化进行评估。最后，嵌入式调查实验将提供因果证据，说明精英和专家线索如何影响对政策的接受和对法治关键方面的支持，如遵守法律和支持对行政和立法权力的司法限制。该项目的每个部分的结果将提供对公民与民主原则关系中激活的个人层面动态危机的见解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估而被认为值得支持。

项目成果

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Public Support for European Integration: Evidence from Germany

COVID-19 大流行和公众对欧洲一体化的支持：来自德国的证据

• DOI: 10.1561/113.00000030
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy
• 作者: Krehbiel, Jay N.;Cheruvu, Sivaram
• 通讯作者: Cheruvu, Sivaram