Josip Glaurdic, Christophe Lesschaeve
Contagions
Nationalism, Populism, and the Pandemic at Europe’s Edge
Contagions: Nationalism, Populism, and the Pandemic at Europe’s Edge offers a sweeping account of how COVID-19 collided with the political fault lines of Southeast Europe. Drawing on original surveys and rich comparative analysis, the book reveals how the crisis interacted with the power of nationalism and populism—reshaping trust, compliance, conspiracy beliefs, economic grievances, and even the memory of the pandemic itself. From the early months of surprising effectiveness to the region’s descent into some of the world’s worst mortality outcomes, the study shows how political ideologies acted like contagions of their own, undermining collective resilience. Southeast Europe emerges here not as an anomaly, but as a diagnostic lens onto broader European and global patterns of crisis governance and democratic fragility. Accessible yet deeply grounded in evidence, this book speaks both to scholars and to readers seeking to understand how ideology shapes societies under strain.
Authors
Josip Glaurdic is a Full Professor of Political Science at the University of Luxembourg. He is the author of The Hour of Europe (2011) and articles on the electoral legacies of war and the politics of the COVID-19 pandemic in Southeast Europe.
Christophe Lesschaeve is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Luxembourg. A specialist in political representation and voter–party congruence, he combines advanced survey and experimental methods in his publications on post-war politics, inequality, and public health.
