Coronavirus pandemic, “decentralization” and governors’ (dis-) approval on the social media: what matters?

In April 2020, the federal authorities in Russia decided to transfer additional decision-making powers to the regions, regarding pandemic-related non-pharmaceutical interventions. While some experts view this as a step towards more federalism, most researchers consider it an attempt to shift the responsibility and blame for decisions and their consequences onto the governors. The empowerment of the regions led to increased attention towards their heads on the social media, as a mirror of the public opinion. This study attempts to find out, to what extent the decision to decentralize governance during the pandemic affected the attitude towards the heads of the regions on the social media, whether this influence was positive or negative, and if the effectiveness of governance and the governors' usage of the social media could have mediated this influence. The analysis conducted using the regression analysis on the data obtained for April - November 2020 for 80 regions. The main finding of the paper is that the approval and disapproval of the governors depended on the stringency of adopted federal and regional measures, which reduced the share of positive comments and increased the share of negative once. At the same time, the effectiveness of governance appeared to be a significant factor: both political control and social policy had a significant effect on the image of governors within the period under study. On the contrary, the use of the social media by governors does not seem to be important, which speaks for the insufficient utilization of this instrument by the regional authorities. The study contributes to the analysis of the COVID-19 policies and their consequences, as well as to the research on the role of governance and the Internet in the Russian political dynamics.

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