In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic. In response to the rapid and global spread of the disease, different countries instated different kinds of measures in...Show moreIn March 2020, the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic. In response to the rapid and global spread of the disease, different countries instated different kinds of measures in different degrees, that of course triggered different outcomes. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the first case of COVD-19 was reported on February 27th of 2020 in Nigeria, and it did not take long before it spread all across the region. Despite the general challenges that the region faces in context of containing public health emergencies – relating to lack of resources and state-capacity, low accessibility of health services, poverty and a large informal sector - national responses too differed vastly. Uganda, for example, is a country often praised for its response.This stands in stark contrast with the response of neighboring country Tanzania, whose approach was characterized by simplification, denialism and dismissal of the pandemic. This thesis yields an explanation for delayed national COVID-19 responses by first comparing the cases of Tanzania and Uganda, and then taking an in-depth look at Tanzania's delayed COVID-19 response. The argument holds that, in Tanzania, contemporary political and institutional factors should be taken into account together with the post-independence, historical legacy of the ruling CCM party. It makes use of critical juncture theory and the concept of medical populism to illustrate the opening up of political-space in light of the 2020 Tanzanian Presidential elections. Further research might focus on other enablers of populism in Sub-Saharan Africa, as manifestations of populism remain under-researched there. For example, (lack of) economic development has been identified as a global cause for populism. Although this was not the case for Tanzania specifically, it might play a role elsewhere in the region.Show less
In 2021, Japan's gender wage gap was among the highest of all OECD countries. A big factor of this economic gender inequality lies in the fact that female participation in regular-work is...Show moreIn 2021, Japan's gender wage gap was among the highest of all OECD countries. A big factor of this economic gender inequality lies in the fact that female participation in regular-work is comparatively low to the participation rate in the more insecure and lower-paying irregular work jobs. Previous research has shown that there are three main obstacles to increased female participation in regular work positions. Those being the long-working-hours culture, a lack of enforcement of policies by the government, and the societal expectation that women are supposed to focus on housework and child-rearing. This paper examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced these obstacles and if there has been any positive change to the female participation rate in regular work. Using the concepts of exogenous shocks and critical junctures as a theoretical framework, this paper argues that the COVID-19 pandemic might have set the stage for real change in the Japanese labour market through the promotion of telework as a legitimate business practice. However, the pandemic has also highlighted or reinforced the existing obstacles to increased female participations in regular work due to the closure of schools and businesses in the hospitality industry, disproportionally affecting women.Show less
Uit eerdere virusuitbraken is gebleken dat pandemieën op de lange termijn mentale klachten kunnen veroorzaken. Recent onderzoek toont aan dat tijdens de COVID-19 pandemie de mentale gezondheid...Show moreUit eerdere virusuitbraken is gebleken dat pandemieën op de lange termijn mentale klachten kunnen veroorzaken. Recent onderzoek toont aan dat tijdens de COVID-19 pandemie de mentale gezondheid afgenomen was, vooral onder jongvolwassenen. Psychologische flexibiliteit kan echter mogelijk de negatieve impact bufferen, met name tijdens stressvolle periodes zoals een pandemie. In de huidige studie werd getest of de mentale gezondheid het laagst was tijdens de pandemie – in vergelijking met de periode ervoor en erna – en dat dit met name voor jongvolwassenen (18-32 jaar) het geval was, ten opzichte van volwassenen (33-62 jaar) en ouderen (63+ jaar). Daarnaast werd onderzocht of mensen met een hoge psychologische flexibiliteit een betere mentale gezondheid hebben dan mensen met een lage psychologische flexibiliteit, met name tijdens de pandemie in uitdagende tijden. In een herhaald cross-sectioneel ontwerp werd data verzameld in Nederland vóór (2018, n = 531), tijdens (2020 & 2021, n = 3813) en na de pandemie (2022 & 2023, n =2143). Jongvolwassenen hadden een verlaagde mentale gezondheid tijdens de pandemie, maar de gemiddelde mentale gezondheid van alle deelnemers tijdens de pandemie bleef verrassend stabiel. Na de pandemie had iedere leeftijdsgroep een hogere mentale gezondheid dan tijdens én voor de pandemie. De mogelijke bijdrage van psychologische flexibiliteit aan de mentale gezondheid was tijdens de pandemie even relevant als na de pandemie. De kwetsbare mentale gezondheid van jongvolwassenen in crisissituaties moet in overweging worden genomen in de strategievorming van toekomstig crisisbeleid.Show less
The prevalence and potential harmful effects of conspiracy theories have garnered increasing attention from psychologists. Understanding the psychological and social factors that contribute to...Show moreThe prevalence and potential harmful effects of conspiracy theories have garnered increasing attention from psychologists. Understanding the psychological and social factors that contribute to belief in conspiracy theories is crucial for managing the preventative measures and promoting evidence-based decision-making. However, the field of psychology has recently faced challenges regarding the replicability and robustness of research findings. This bachelor thesis aims to investigate the robustness and replicability of interaction effects in a study on beliefs in conspiracy theories and attitudes towards anti-coronavirus measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. The thesis extracts data from a study by Hudecek et al. (2022) on the psychological correlates of beliefs in conspiracy theories in Germany. Specifically, it examines the interaction effect between dark triad personality traits and social status in predicting belief in conspiracy theories. The thesis utilizes resampling to test the robustness of the interaction effects. The analysis includes three subsamples (random, central, extreme) with three dropout conditions (10%, 20%, 30%). F tests are conducted to assess the variance between two given methods. The results revealed that the distribution of the interaction coefficients remain fairly stable in the central resampling approach pointing to robustness, however, significant inconsistencies were observed in the random and extreme resampling approach. Future research calls for replicating the study in diverse populations, investigating additional predictors of belief in conspiracy theories and testing the robustness and replicability of previous findings to address the replication crisis in the social sciences.Show less
Background The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the economies, social relationships, and mental health of the population globally. A growing number of research presents empirical evidence for the...Show moreBackground The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the economies, social relationships, and mental health of the population globally. A growing number of research presents empirical evidence for the negative psychological consequences of the lockdowns, such as increased anxiety and stress. However, the long-term mental effects, especially on children and their parents, are unclear and need to be further investigated. Aims This paper aims to examine whether there is a difference in the levels of anxious and shy behaviour in five-year-old children and in parental stress in their parents due to the pandemic. Method The data was collected as part of the "Jij en Je Gezondheid" project, executed by the Gemeentelijke Gezondheidsdiensten region. Inclusion criteria included children around the age of five and their parents who live in Amsterdam. Independent samples t-test was run to investigate whether there is a difference in anxious and shy behaviour in the children and parental stress before and after the COVID lockdowns. Results Levels of anxious and shy behaviour were higher after the COVID lockdowns in children as compared to the before lockdowns group. Parental stress was reported to also increase after the COVID lockdowns. Conclusions The study emphasizes the negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s anxious and shy behaviour and their parents' stress levels. The findings highlight the need for tailored interventions for families to decrease the long-term psychological burden of the pandemic, as well as additional research to fully understand the problem.Show less
Organized crime has remained an incredibly persistent problem in Mexico in the last decades consequently causing severe levels of violence, insecurity, and corruption in the country. Historically,...Show moreOrganized crime has remained an incredibly persistent problem in Mexico in the last decades consequently causing severe levels of violence, insecurity, and corruption in the country. Historically, Mexican organized crime groups have demonstrated strong resilience and overcome various challenges posed by the Mexican and American governments. However, it is not clear how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted organized crime in Mexico. This thesis wishes to explore this by studying the changes in organized crime activity in Mexico before and during the pandemic. Based on the crime rates, it was observed that some organized crime-related activities decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic, while others remained stable. These results indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent regulations have had a slight, but insignificant impact on organized crime in Mexico. This strongly indicate that Mexican organized crime groups’ have the ability to show great resilience in the face of major disruptions to the social environment. This finding highlights the need for more detailed research on what mechanisms enable organized crime to remain afloat. An understanding of these mechanisms is of great significance to policymakers attempting to limit the harm of organized crime.Show less
The COVID-19 pandemic had a substantial impact on Dutch public organizations, and on society as a whole. This study aims to explore the leadership preferences among public servants during times of...Show moreThe COVID-19 pandemic had a substantial impact on Dutch public organizations, and on society as a whole. This study aims to explore the leadership preferences among public servants during times of crisis, and to make concrete recommendations for further research into the underdeveloped knowledge on public leadership preferences in times of crisis. To do so, semistructured interviews were conducted with employees from the municipalities of The Hague and Gouda, during which they were asked to report their needs in terms of three leadership styles: laissez-faire, transactional and transformational. The study found that transformational leadership was preferred during the pandemic and encourages fellow researchers to verify this using quantitative means. Further recommendations include the reexamination of the usefulness of laissez-faire leadership and the usage of different leadership frameworks to touch upon other behaviors.Show less
This paper investigates the causes behind the continual suspension of the European Union’s (EU) Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) under its general escape clause (GEC) throughout the period of 2020...Show moreThis paper investigates the causes behind the continual suspension of the European Union’s (EU) Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) under its general escape clause (GEC) throughout the period of 2020-2023. The GEC was triggered in March of 2020 on the recommendation of the European Commission to give member states fiscal room to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, but has remained in place for over three years, despite the subsiding of pandemic emergency measures, restored levels of economic activity, and the repeated recommendations and predictions from numerous European institutions that the rules were to be reinstated at the end of 2022 by the very latest. With the emergence of a legislative proposal from the European Commission to reform the SGP’s rules, questions have emerged from journalistic endeavours and academic literature as to the purpose of the extended suspension. This paper utilises explaining-outcome process-tracing as described by Beach and Pedersen (2013) to compare the expectations and assumptions of varying theories, particularly the “failing forward” theory of Jones et al., (2016) to investigate and explain the European Commission’s decision-making in the case of the SGP’s continual suspension. It concludes that the continual suspension can be minimally explained by ongoing reform efforts by the European Commission, in line with the theoretical expectations of Jones et al. and the findings of Schön-Quinlan and Sciponi (2017). It cannot rule out that the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, and the economic knock-on effects, played a part in the decision for continual suspension. The findings of this paper have implications for understanding the European Commission as a fiscal actor in an economic crisis, and understanding the relevance of particular theories of European integration to the historical context of the COVID-19 pandemic.Show less
This paper examines the impact that the salience of the threat of contagious diseases has on Dutch citizens’ support for non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) aimed at battling this threat....Show moreThis paper examines the impact that the salience of the threat of contagious diseases has on Dutch citizens’ support for non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) aimed at battling this threat. During the COVID-19 pandemic, populations in Western countries where the salience of the threat of the coronavirus was elevated, reported high support for preventive measures. This level of support did vary between countries which led to the question of whether the outcomes would be the same for previously excluded countries, like the Netherlands. Analysing how salience influences the support for NPIs can help governments with creating the best and most supported approach to battle contagious diseases in the future. For this research, the emphasis will be on the so far understudied Dutch population. Taking previous literature on the Netherlands and its neighbouring countries, this study argues that the salience of the threat of contagious diseases will increase Dutch citizens’ support for NPIs aimed at alleviating this threat. After conducting a survey experiment, no support was found for this hypothesis since both groups, with salience and without salience of the threat, reported an equal level of support for the implementation of NPIs. Overall, as expected from previous literature, the lowest support was found for implementing a complete lockdown. Unfortunately, these findings were not generalisable to the whole Dutch population. Future research should focus on either sampling a bigger group for a similar study, or on researching what does influence the support for NPIs in the Netherlands if it is not the salience of the threat of contagious diseases.Show less
Economic Governance in EU has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and with the suspension of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), window for reforms have become visible. To...Show moreEconomic Governance in EU has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and with the suspension of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), window for reforms have become visible. To understand the implications of the proposed reforms by the EU Economic Governance Review, we conduct a case-study analysis of both COVID-19 Pandemic and the European Debt Crisis of 2009 to understand how efficient these proposed SGP reforms could be. The case-study analysis compares the public expenditures of member states to derive the efficiency of the Excessive Deficit procedure (EDP) under SGP. The author is able to derive limitations pertaining to policy failure in the analysis. Overall, even though the study might identify the subjective relevance of EDP amongst the member states, the procyclical impact of the reforms suggest further discourse in the field.Show less
During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was assumed that European cooperation, both individually and collectively, would produce better results than autonomous national self-interest. Especially the...Show moreDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, it was assumed that European cooperation, both individually and collectively, would produce better results than autonomous national self-interest. Especially the demand for increased cross-national cooperation to accelerate data exchange for multilateral COVID-19 research to inform public health policy-making was highly critical. However, sharing health data for secondary purposes such as research is difficult, as technical, political, and ethical issues were identified before the COVID-19 pandemic. This thesis focused on data management issues and barriers such as a lack of metadata standards and data interoperability. Facilitating cross-border secondary use of health data to inform public health decisions has been on the EU's agenda for some time, leading to the creation of the Joint Action Towards the European Health Data Space and the European Commission’s recommendation on a European electronic health record exchange standard, among other things. The COVID-19 pandemic provided an excellent case study for determining whether these guidelines were adequate for guiding efficient data sharing in collaborative research. For instance, the EU made a significant investment in cooperative COVID-19 research projects with the goal of providing data to support public health policies. In this thesis, ReCoDID, ORCHESTRA, unCoVer, and SYNCHROS—four projects financed by the EU Horizon2020 program—are discussed in detail. The projects shed light on the challenges of sharing patient-level data from observational cohorts, particularly with regard to data management issues such as data interoperability. It was discovered that EU guidelines did enable the formation of research projects and that these projects were even aimed at improving data harmonisation and exchange in COVID-19 research. However, because there is still no EU-standardised agreement on the selection of data interoperability standards, this has become a difficult task. Specifically, none of the four projects examined was able to locate interoperability standards at the legal, policy, care process, information, application, or infrastructure levels.Show less
What happens when populist radical right parties (PRRPs) adopt an anti-lockdown stance? PRRPs in Western Europe, which in ideology are mostly comparable, have been divided on the issue of COVID-19....Show moreWhat happens when populist radical right parties (PRRPs) adopt an anti-lockdown stance? PRRPs in Western Europe, which in ideology are mostly comparable, have been divided on the issue of COVID-19. The answer does not follow automatically from their economic, cultural or anti-elitist positions, which all seem to advocate for a different strategy. In some countries, such as the Netherlands, two PRRPs have each taken a different approach: one became an anti-lockdown party, the other did not. In this study the effects of becoming an anti-lockdown party on their voter base, who either vote for economic, cultural or anti-elitist reasons, have been examined using a mediation analysis on existing panel data. This study concludes that voters, who mostly vote because they agree with the PRRPs cultural right-wing positions, might be dissuaded to vote for a PRRP that has become an anti-lockdown party. However, anti-lockdown attitudes most strongly positively affect voting for an anti-lockdown party on their own and appear to tap into a new voter base. Future research is needed in order to corroborate this finding.Show less
Recent studies have found a strong correlation between covid-19 and higher conflict intensity. Yet, scant attention has been paid to the ways in which covid-19 increased the conflict intensity of...Show moreRecent studies have found a strong correlation between covid-19 and higher conflict intensity. Yet, scant attention has been paid to the ways in which covid-19 increased the conflict intensity of pre-existing conflicts. Therefore, this is the gap that this thesis aims to fill. From the disaster-conflict literature, and the covid-19-conflict literature more specifically, I derive three possible causal mechanisms concerning 1) state capacity 2) conflict mitigation, and 3) foreign backers. Consequently, I test these mechanisms with the use of process tracing in the context of the Libyan conflict. The evidence reveals that all three mechanisms were partly present, but did not exactly function as theorized. Indeed, in contrast to the hypothesized causal mechanism, no evidence is found for the suspension of military activities by the state, suggesting that the emergence of covid-19 did not weaken state capacity. Besides, the suspension of conflict mitigating activities and the involvement of foreign backers led to an intensification of violence, despite the continued attention for the conflict during the pandemic. More research, therefore, is necessary to further explore the mechanisms linking pandemics and conflict intensity in pre-existing conflicts.Show less
Master thesis | European Politics and Society: Vaclav Havel Joint Master Programme
open access
In recent years, rising concerns about the spread of fake-news and misinformation across liberal democracies have gained academic prominence, particularly in light of the January 6th Insurrection...Show moreIn recent years, rising concerns about the spread of fake-news and misinformation across liberal democracies have gained academic prominence, particularly in light of the January 6th Insurrection and the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a seldom explored aspect is whether people’s lack of responsiveness to facts, or fact-insensitivity, has disparate effects across electoral systems. To fill this gap, I build on Stephanopoulos’s (2014) alignment approach of democracy to empirically test whether fact-insensitiveness exacerbates misalignment effects across majoritarian, proportional, or mixed electoral systems. Methodologically, I conduct a Large-N analysis to test the strength of the relationship between the degree of fact-insensitiveness and electoral alignment in lower house constituencies in 16 democracies (N=2722). Additionally, I bound the scope of inference by taking into account cultural and psychological proximity in the country selection process (Schulz, Bahrami-Rad, J. P. Beauchamp, et al. 2019; Muthukrishna et al. 2020). To evaluate this, I employ a dataset that combines original vaccination data with existing data on COVID-19 disorder events, and electoral outcomes. The results show that electoral systems have significantly different electoral outcomes in terms of alignment, however, there are no statistically significant differences among them with regards of fact-insensitivity. In turn, this denies any normative gains or losses when selecting an electoral system in contexts of varying degrees of fact-insensitiveness.Show less
Observed globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has generated a mental health decline. The pandemic has affected the general public, individuals that have been quarantined and individuals who have been...Show moreObserved globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has generated a mental health decline. The pandemic has affected the general public, individuals that have been quarantined and individuals who have been infected with COVID-19. Currently, only a few available studies compare pandemic-onset depressive symptoms between these groups. Additionally, it is not yet known how a dominant position on the personality continuum of introversion/extraversion influences individuals’ experiences of depressive symptoms. Thus, the present study investigates differences between covid groups, as well as differences between individuals with dominant introverted versus extraverted traits. The findings will contribute to the construction of a global response in the observed mental health decline. The study is carried out through a cross-sectional online questionnaire (N = 150), in a group of adults between 18 and 30 years old. Individuals’ differences in positions on the introversion/extraversion continuum are measured using the HEXACO- PI-R. The mean PHQ-9 and HADS depression scores were observed to be 14.95/10.25 (healthy), 18.35/11.94 (quarantined), 15.64/10.25 (infected) and 15.76/11.55 (quarantined + infected) in the respective groups. No difference between covid status groups on the depression scores was found. Within the whole sample, in the healthy and quarantined + infected groups (p < 0.001), and in the PHQ-9 measured infected group (p = 0.045), significant negative relationships between extraversion and depressive symptom scores were found. These findings are limited due to small sample sizes, the cross-sectional design and the use of convenience sampling. Further studies should include larger sample sizes and make use of a longitudinal design and probability sampling.Show less
What is environmental turbulence? How does it affect organisational performance? And how is this relationship moderated by stabilising features? This thesis delves into the topic of organisational...Show moreWhat is environmental turbulence? How does it affect organisational performance? And how is this relationship moderated by stabilising features? This thesis delves into the topic of organisational stability in the wake of turbulence stemming from the outside of (public) organisations. It uses COVID-19 crisis as an example of environmental turbulence and assesses its impact on the provision of education in The Netherlands. Moreover, this thesis investigates the moderating role of stabilising features, conceptualised as personnel stability in the form of personnel tenure, forms of employment and teacher-to-student ratio. This thesis is quantitative and deductive. In order to test this relationship, a statistical model has been set up, with the data on 429 public schools in the secondary education in The Netherlands. This thesis finds positive support for the argument that stabilising features attenuate the negative effect of environmental turbulence on the organisational performance, albeit weakly. This thesis recommends to delve further into contextual factors that could have an impact on aforementioned relationships, by choosing, for instance, a smaller N, or investigating one or few particular schools through interviews and thick description.Show less
