by Li-Yin Liu & Wei-Ting Yen
While people in countries such as the United States were discontented and heavily opposed to stricter COVID-19 mitigation measures, why did individuals in some democratic societies voluntarily request and support stringent policies? This was our central research question in our recent article published in Policy & Politics.
Securitisation scholars argue that the exceptionalism of allowing the government to restrict people’s liberties and allocate more resources to certain policies results from successful securitisation—a persuasive process that convinces people that COVID-19 is a national security threat.
However, despite extensive studies applying securitisation theory to public health crises, existing research often lacks empirical data. Additionally, securitisation theory does not clearly define “exceptionalism,” nor does it explain why successful securitisation leads to public support for some policies but not across all related policy areas.
Therefore, to address this gap, we used the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) to examine COVID-19 securitisation in Taiwan. Analysis of a conjoint experiment conducted just after the Taiwanese government decided to move away from its zero-COVID policy demonstrated that variations in public support for different COVID-19 policy dimensions resulted from the morals of stories within its COVID-19 securitisation narratives. Because these narratives in Taiwan portrayed COVID-19 as an external threat to national security, they justified and gained public support for border-related restrictions. Additionally, the portrayal of the medical mask production team as heroes and masks as a shield to defend resulted in support for mask mandates.
Our study contributes to the literature on securitising public health and enhances our understanding of the effect of successful securitisation by employing the NPF to explain how the content of securitisation language may lead to variation in the exceptionalism of a health crisis mitigation policy mix.
The importance of these findings is to highlight the importance for researchers and policymakers to carefully consider policy narrative contents to effectively communicate and garner support for a range of policies during times of crisis.
You can read the original research in Policy & Politics at
Liu, L., & Yen, W. (2024). Why do individuals in democratic societies support stringent policies? A narrative policy framework analysis. Policy & Politics, 52(3), 453-476 from https://doi.org/10.1332/030557324X17049690476008
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Kim, J. H., Kuk, J., & Kweon, Y. (2024). Did low-income essential workers during COVID-19 increase public support for redistribution?. Policy & Politics, 52(3), 430-452. Retrieved Sep 11, 2024, from https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2023D000000008
MacAulay, M., Fafard, P., Cassola, A., & Palkovits, M. (2023). Analysing the ‘follow the science’ rhetoric of government responses to COVID-19. Policy & Politics, 51(3), 466-485 from https://doi.org/10.1332/030557321X16831146677554
van den Dool, A., & Qiu, T. (2024). Policy processes in China: a systematic review of the multiple streams framework. Policy & Politics (published online ahead of print 2024) from https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2024D000000038
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