Chapter 4: Public Priorities During a Pandemic: Cross-national Comparisons

This chapter explores the financial aspects of resolving the COVID-19 pandemic, including respondents’ feelings about their country going into more debt and perceptions of how public funding should be spent. A factor analysis reveals spending priorities could be classified into three broad areas: Welfare (e.g., funding social welfare and research), Development (e.g., business, infrastructure, and international development), and Security (e.g., police and military). Finnish residents were more likely to support spending on welfare while Americans were more likely to support spending on development. There was no difference between the nations for supporting spending on the security state. Importantly, confidence in institutions was negatively correlated with supporting spending on welfare but positively correlated with supporting spending in development and security. Potentially confounding factors such as having been sick with COVID-19, worrying about the pandemic, news consumption about COVID-19, social capital, life satisfaction, and feelings toward the future were included in the model to determine if these mediated or moderated the relationship between confidence in institutions and support for various types of spending. While none of the variables mediated the relationship between confidence and spending priorities, worrying about COVID-19, social isolation, and social capital were related to increased support for spending on welfare, while being sick with COVID-19 and social capital were related to increased support for spending on the security state. The analyses reveal that pandemic-related factors influence spending priorities, but these did not overcome the influence of demographic factors and the general level of confidence one had in the institutions of society.