COVID-19 POLICY Pioneer or Puppet: Examining the Credit Claiming and Blame Avoidance Behaviors of Local Government Leadership through Ventriloquial Analysis
Abstract:
In times of crisis, the decisions of elected leaders are often called into question. Credit claiming and blame avoidance behaviors—motivated by a desire to secure reelection—are used by public officials to retain an image of legitimacy. These types of behaviors are magnified in moments of constraint. During the COVID-19 pandemic, local public leaders felt multidirectional pressure as they sought to respond to the mandates of larger governing bodies and the needs of their constituents. Little is known about their use of credit claiming and blame avoidance in response to the pandemic. Similarly, the following holes remain in the broader credit claiming and blame avoidance literature: (1) how peripheral factors influence credit claiming and blame avoidance behaviors; and (2) how claiming and blaming behaviors are used in tandem to promote a perception of competency. In an effort to explore these understudied areas, ventriloquial analysis—a methodology borrowed from the field of communication—will be used to answer the following research questions: (RQ1) How do mayor’s use credit claiming and blame avoidance behaviors to navigate COVID-related constraints? (RQ2) What influences (voices) are made present during instances of credit claiming and blame avoidance behavior? (RQ3) How do mayor’s depict the relationships between these influences (voices)? The COVID-related press conferences held by Sylvester Turner, the mayor of Houston, Texas, will be used as the data set due to their accessibility and great fit for the scope this research.