Combatting the coronavirus politicians and policy makers have to continuously make a trade-off between public health and democratic rights. How do citizens’ attitudes towards democracy develop in a pandemic? In this study we test whether changes in the information environment affect citizens’ trust in the local and national government. Moreover, we study whether changes in the information environment are associated with the perceptions about the extent to which democratic processes are under pressure. We address these questions using a five wave panel study in the Netherlands conducted between April and September 2020. We find that during this period media use and political trust decreased. Moreover, Dutch citizens are worried about the effects of the corona crisis on local and national democracy. When it comes to the effects of media use on political trust and attitudes towards democracy, we find that media use has a limited effect on attitudes towards democracy. If anything, consuming news via the public broadcaster has a positive effect on political trust. To conclude, our study provides descriptive evidence about the development of attitudes towards democracy in the Netherlands during a major public health crisis. Dutch citizens are worried about democracy but media play a limited role in amplifying or reducing these worries.

Reflection and debate initiates academically inspired discussions on issues that are on the current policy agenda.

Reflection and debate initiates academically inspired discussions on issues that are on the current policy agenda.

Reflection and debate initiates academically inspired discussions on issues that are on the current policy agenda.

In this feature authors discuss recent research findings that are of interest to readers of Beleid en Maatschappij.

In this article, the use of interactive features on the websites of Dutch local (branches of) political parties during the campaign for the 2010 local elections is investigated. We distinguish between features that are directed to increase political discussion and those that are used for political mobilisation. A content analysis of 1403 party websites demonstrates that websites of the social-liberal party D66 are the most interactive, followed by the Socialist Party. Furthermore, for elections in larger municipalities, more interactivity is used on the parties’ websites. Overall, the use of both types of interactive features is rather limited. Finally, a positive association between interactivity and election results, while controlling for previous elections and national trends, is established. These results point to the importance of (online) political campaigning in the context of local elections.