Pandemic Politics: How Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina Leveraged Populist and Technocratic Styles of Political Leadership during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

On March 11, 2020, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), delivered a media briefing declaring the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) outbreak a pandemic. Latin America quickly became one of the hardest hit regions by the pandemic, making up 15% of cases and 28% of deaths worldwide by 2022. Modern scientific technologies aided experts in developing treatment and containment protocols, but failed to provide leaders with certainty in the face of a rapidly evolving threat. Due to these variables, research has found Latin American political leaders exhibited two general response patterns to the crisis: increased populist rhetoric and denial of the issue or reliance on technocratic rhetoric and experts to inform and direct policy. This project examines the relationship between populist and technocratic political styles during the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America. Previous literature describes technocracy and populism as opposite ends of a spectrum, with technocracy based on objectivity and expertise, and populism rooted in emotional appeals and division. However, emerging "technopopulist" theory argues that both styles may not be mutually exclusive, rather that they coexist during times of uncertainty. This study measures the frequency of populist and technocratic rhetoric in presidential social media communications in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico from March - June 2020. Through qualitative content analysis, six variables of technocratic and populist rhetoric are examined. The study finds that, regardless of political characterization, leaders relied more significantly on technocratic rhetoric than populist rhetoric in communications during the pandemic. Results are discussed.