Schematising COVID-19 pandemic responses: An ideal typical analysis

This article utilises ideal typical models, or sociological heuristics, when analysing COVID-19 pandemic responses in an international context. Axes of differentiation include Authoritarian-Libertarian and Left-Right tendencies, encapsulating four generic worldviews that potentially patterned societal responses to the novel coronavirus: (1) hierarchical, (2) dismissive or fatalistic, (3) individualistic, and (4) egalitarian. Taking the 'shock period' (circa 2020-2021) as the primary window of analysis, the article schematises contrasting orientations that have since left their mark in a context of COVID-19 endemicity. In conclusion, a case is made for an explicitly egalitarian and anti-authoritarian stance amidst countervailing, even fascistic, tendencies. The possibility of another politics of life is underscored given the spectre of ongoing crises in a global context.