I think politicians do have an incentive to lock down as much as possible.
It appeals to their ego to do something authoritarian, and the power balance shifts from voters feeling free to voters anxiously hanging on the lips of politicians to find out when their new masters will allow them to go out again.
There very powerful psychological forces at play here, people are literally trained like dogs in these situations.
As an example, in Germany the CDU approval ratings shot up during the crisis, people apparently have Stockholm syndrome.
It appeals to their ego to do something authoritarian, and the power balance shifts from voters feeling free to voters anxiously hanging on the lips of politicians to find out when their new masters will allow them to go out again.
There very powerful psychological forces at play here, people are literally trained like dogs in these situations.
As an example, in Germany the CDU approval ratings shot up during the crisis, people apparently have Stockholm syndrome.