Contagions

Contagions: Nationalism, Populism, and the Pandemic at Europe’s Edge offers a sweeping account of how COVID-19 collided with the political fault lines of Southeast Europe. Drawing on original surveys and rich comparative analysis, the book reveals how the crisis interacted with the power of nationalism and populism—reshaping trust, compliance, conspiracy beliefs, economic grievances, and even the memory of the pandemic itself. From the early months of surprising effectiveness to the region’s descent into some of the world’s worst mortality outcomes, the study shows how political ideologies acted like contagions of their own, undermining collective resilience. Southeast Europe emerges here not as an anomaly, but as a diagnostic lens onto broader European and global patterns of crisis governance and democratic fragility. Accessible yet deeply grounded in evidence, this book speaks both to scholars and to readers seeking to understand how ideology shapes societies under strain.