COVID ‐19, Institutional Trust, and Citizens' Willingness to Trade Freedoms for Security in the Asia‐Pacific Region

ABSTRACT

When do citizens accept authoritarian measures in the name of public safety? Using Asian Barometer Survey Wave 6 data from eight Asia‐Pacific countries spanning democracies, electoral democracies, and hybrid regimes, this article examines acceptance of five pandemic‐era freedom restrictions: postponing elections, limiting speech and assembly, censoring media, tracking locations, and extending lockdowns. Personal COVID‐19 hardship weakly predicts acceptance. Instead, institutional trust—especially positive evaluations of government pandemic management—is the strongest correlate, while pre‐existing authoritarian dispositions independently amplify acceptance. Country‐level variation does not map onto regime type: Malaysia and Mongolia show the highest acceptance, Thailand and Korea the lowest. Disaggregated analysis reveals that citizens distinguish sharply across restriction types, accepting election postponement far more readily than media censorship—the restriction most tied to authoritarian predispositions. Asian values (collectivism, deference, harmony) contribute independently but do not displace institutional trust, supporting a layered rather than competing model of cultural and institutional influences.