During crisis, the most serious impacts can be the result of disruptions to essential or important services creating a void that hits hardest society’s most vulnerable. Supply chains break down when they are pushed beyond capacity, or when employees are unable to go to work because of illness or due to protective measures. The selective scarcity of yeast, flour, and toilet paper in many countries’ grocery stores and the strains or temporary closures of food and service providers due to COVID-19, exemplify this breakdown.
Oftentimes, other social actors (e.g., social movements, collective action agents) step in to fill this void. At its best, this ersatz service provision can simply aid individuals and groups that are imperiled or seriously encumbered by crisis disruptions. Yet service provision during crisis or in other deprived settings can be a target for malign, ideological projects: extremists have long recognised and frequently exploited such opportunities to employ ‘community politics’—and the current COVID-19 crisis is no exception.
Extremist actors have a long history of benefiting from crisis. Social psychological research has repeatedly confirmed a positive relationship between perceived threats—always heightened by crisis—and authoritarian attitudes. Many individuals are more inclined under crisis conditions to turn to extremist actors that portray themselves as guarantors of order and stability.
