Crisis Leadership: Boris Johnson and Political Persuasion During the COVID Pandemic

This Element examines the way that Boris Johnson's government handled the early months of the Covid crisis in the UK, with a particular focus on the role of rhetoric and communication in enacting their leadership strategy. In liberal democracies, persuasive communication is a vital tool for the execution of power, and leadership is often seen to rely on effective communication practices. The Element focuses in particular on the ways in which notions of trust and authority were constructed as part of this strategy, and how these operated as key indexicals meant to provide a foundation for effective persuasion. It examines how, within a few weeks of the start of the lockdown policy, media opinion had begun opining that the government was losing the trust of the electorate due to actions related to this communications strategy, which had the effect of undermining its authority of influence.