Resumen de Affective Governance During the COVID-19 Crisis: Building Leadership, Trust, and Good Citizens
Emiliana De Blasio, Donatella Selva
Concepts such as emotional governance, affective citizenship and transformational leadership point at the way governments are addressing the COVID-19 crisis from an emotional perspective. The study takes the Italian and Spanish leaders as case studies, analysing TV speeches, press conferences and parliamentary addresses, on the one hand, and Facebook posts, on the other hand. The results show that the two cases adopt different emotional repertoires, depending on the historical and cultural leanings but also on the style of leadership they embrace. This style reverberates in the relationship they seek to build with citizens to stimulate compliance with their decisions and in the use of Facebook to promote positive messages and counter the spreading of misinformation. The article also shows how affective governance and style of leadership contribute to the normative definition of good and deviant citizens in critical historical junctures. In particular, the diffusion of fake news (and not just their manufacturing) is depicted as anti-patriotic and non-civic. We argue that the crisis has catalysed processes and trends that were already at play, while at the same time defining a new trait of leadership in the ability to promote cross-generational solidarity and sense of belonging beyond national boundaries.
