Question

Achen and Bartels argue that the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic didn’t really affect the 1918 US election because there was no social consensus about how bad the epidemic was or who’s fault it was. Are either of these conditions present today, especially in the USA? Does the theory of Achen and Bartels tell us anything about the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic?

Answer 1

There is a social consensus about how bad Covid-19 pandemic is and how its creating havoc generally across the world and particularly in the US. The another important issue is the communication which has been highly developed and globalized over the decades, thus getting to know who and how is someone at fault. Although these conditions are present in some of the Asian countries like India however, this is not true in case of US. The theory of Achen and Bartels are relevant to 2020 Covid-19 pandemic regarding the argument that presidents will be rewarded or punished by the voters for changes over a related short period of time in the election-year economy no matter how these changes may have happened.