About the The Covid-19 and Democracy Project

The Covid-19 and Democracy Project explores the intersection between the Covid-19 pandemic and democratic politics and policy.

Based at Kingston University, London, the project is committed to engaging with academics, educators, elected officials and election candidates, and practitioners to develop insights about the Covid-19 pandemic and democracy.

We are currently developing this site, and are adding new content in due course.

For more information, see this page.

The Covid-19 and Democracy Podcast

Begun in October 2020, our podcast aims to capture in real-time the fervent intellectual debate at the intersections between the Covid-19 pandemic and democratic politics and policy.

It is presented by our Project Lead Peter Finn, and has featured guests from across Europe, the US, and Hong Kong.

An archive of our past episodes can be found here

The podcast is available, among other platforms, on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and Anchor

‘Pandemic Politics: Covid-19 and the 2020 US Electoral Cycle’ hits 10,000

Launched in June 2021 by The Covid-19 and Democracy Project, the briefing paper  ‘Pandemic Politics: Covid-19 and the 2020 US Electoral Cycle’ hit 10,000 website downloads in February 2023.

It is written by Dr Peter Finn, Madison Imiola, and Dr Robert Ledger, featuring a foreword by Professor Alison Baverstock.

Full information about the briefing, and related outputs, can be found here.

A Levels, and Transitions to UK Higher Education

A Levels, and Transitions to UK Higher Education, July 2022

The Covid-19 and Democracy Project is pleased to announce the release of the policy e-briefing The Covid-19 pandemic, A Levels, and Transitions to UK Higher Education.

This e-briefing is written by Dr Peter Finn, Associate Professor Radu Cinpoes, and Emily Hill of Kingston University, and features a foreword by Dr Melanie-Marie Haywood, Director of Education Development Service, Birmingham City University.

You can find our e-briefing ‘The Covid-19 pandemic, A Levels, and Transitions to UK Higher Education‘ here.

You can find an abridged audio version of our e-briefing here.

You can find an abridged version of our e-briefing, published on the UK Politics and Policy site of the London School of Economics, here.

You can find full information about our e-briefing paper here.

Get Jabbed Ealing!

Get Jabbed Ealing! was a panel event hosted by the The Covid-19 and Democracy Project that occurred on Thursday 10 February 2022.

The event panel featured:

• Cllr Dr Fabio Conti, Ealing Conservative Party​
• Dr Kate Crossland, Ealing Green Party​
• Cllr Dr Aysha Raza, Ealing Labour Party
• Cllr Jon Ball, Ealing Lib Dems
• Chair: Dr Peter Finn, Kingston University

A recording of Get Jabbed Ealing! was released as part of the The Covid-19 and Democracy Podcast.

The panel received local press coverage, and was featured in local newsletters.

Full information here

EU Migration and Mobility: The Impact of Covid-19

We are pleased to announce the release of an e-briefing on migration and mobility in the European Union.

Written by Dr. Nevena Nancheva, a Senior Lecturer at Kingston University, London, this brief documents how those in the most precarious positions had their situations exacerbated by policy choices made in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

This e-briefing is the third in a series of e-briefings. A forthcoming e-briefing by Dr Emma O’Dwyer of Kingston University will explore mutual aid groups in the UK during the pandemic.

Exploring the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on justice in England and Wales

We are pleased to announce the release of an e-briefing on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on justice in England and Wales. 

Written by David Green, an Academic Manager at the University of Law and former partner at a large legal firm with over a decade experience practising in criminal law, this brief documents how an already stretched system has struggled to cope since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in Spring 2020.

This e-briefing is the second in a series of e-briefings. Future briefs will explore migration and mobility in the European Union and mutual aid groups in the UK during the pandemic

Read our Briefing Paper on the 2020 US elections

Launched in June 2021, this briefing paper explores the relationship between the Covid-19 pandemic on the 2020 US election cycle.

This brief, the first in a series that will continue in September 2021, is written by our Project Lead Peter Finn, regular project contributor Robert Ledger (Frankfurt Goethe University), and Madison Imiola (Washington State Human Rights Commission). Peter Finn wrote a comment piece for the Kingston University website based on the briefing paper, which you can find here.

Titled ‘Pandemic Politics: Covid-19 and the 2020 US Electoral Cycle’, the briefing paper is available here.

Read our Report

Launched in September 2020, our comparative report explored the early days of the pandemic across eight democracies (The UK, Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Israel, Japan, Taiwan and the USA).

Explaining the significance of the report, Project Lead Peter Finn said it ‘illustrates the political nature of the way the Covid-19 pandemic has been handled to date, demonstrating why the political ramifications of the pandemic will take years, if not decades, to play out.’

Expanding, Finn said that ‘the politics around how different countries are run, how governments are put and held in place and politics around the funding of healthcare sectors are really important. This has influenced the pandemic to date  and is going to continue to do so.’

Titled ‘Covid-19 and Democracy, First Cut Policy Analyses: Country Case Studies‘, the report is available here.