Cities, states, and countries around the world are taking dramatic steps to try and halt the spread of covid-19. Although leading public health experts appear to be in near consensus that severe restrictions are necessary, many of these restrictions do limit civil liberties. And some of the options that have been implemented around the world may violate those countries’ constitutions.

Kevin Cope, Charles Crabtree, Mila Versteeg, and I are researching how people in different countries feel about these limits on civil liberties. We’ll have some academic paper(s) out in the future, but the first essay reporting results from the project was just published by the Atlantic.

The essay reports results from a survey we administered to a nationally representative sample of 3,000 Americans. The survey asked respondents whether they supported implementing various policies to fight covid-19. As the above figure shows, the proposals enjoyed majority support. This is true even for more extreme proposals like restricting free speech, expropriating businesses, and conscripting workers. This was also true even for a random subset of respondents where we explicitly explained the policies may violate the constitution. And, although there are some differences between Democrats and Republicans, the differences were pretty small given the levels of polarization in America.

If you’re interested, you can read the whole piece here.