Ústav mezinárodních vztahů

Do you wish to publish on the effects of coronavirus on liberal-democratic governance? Send your abstract to dopita@iir.cz until 24 May. Final versions of manuscripts are due on 31 July at the latest. The special issue’s publication is planned for 1 December 2020.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly reshaped debates on the global order, democratic politics, and the liberal mode of governing societies. Some have compared the virus to the “ultimate empty signifier,” which allowed difficult ideological groups to fill itself with its securitizations, creating in an instant a plethora of political otherings.

The special issue will focus on:

• comparing the liberal and illiberal reactions (both domestic and international) to the pandemic, looking into how it has affected the democratic and non-democratic forms of governance;
• examining where the responses have been similar or overlapping, i.e., where COVID-19 has practically blurred or erased the border between the liberal and illiberal politics;
• looking into how different types of regimes and political groupings have borrowed new elements and styles of politics, e.g., in which circumstances populist or autocratic politicians suddenly seemed more liberal than their liberal and democratic counterparts;
• investigating the ramifications of these changes for the liberal components of the globalized international order.