Right-Wing Populism and COVID-19 Superspreader Events in Western Europe

Western Europe data on the relationship between early COVID-19 superspreader events and support for right-wing populism. The dataset, by Ranjit Lall, likely contains measures of online engagement, election results, and survey responses from France, Britain, and the Netherlands. It was last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling the effect of local infection rates on populist support based on superspreader event timing.
• Analyzing changes in online engagement with populist figures based on regional COVID-19 incidence.
• Investigating the role of institutional confidence and outgroup hostility as mechanisms linking health shocks to politics.
• Comparing electoral and survey-based measures of populist support during the pandemic's onset.

Strengths

• Data triangulates findings from multiple sources: online engagement, French municipal elections, and British/Dutch surveys.
• Analysis is grounded in specific theoretical mechanisms: institutional confidence, outgroup hostility, and opposition to restrictions.
• Last updated 2026-04-11, suggesting potential maintenance.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file formats are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Comparative Political Studies Dataverse, author Ranjit Lall.

Collection Method

Likely compiled from public health data, online metrics, election results, and representative surveys.

Time Range

Focuses on the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, likely around 2020.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-11 20:20:32; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Western Europe, specifically France, Britain, and the Netherlands.