About this Research Topic
This Research Topic aims to provide one of the first systematic empirical investigations of the politics of expertise during the Covid-19 pandemic. Pandemics are rare events. Yet we cannot overstate the unprecedented opportunities they can present for getting insight into critical factors that may lie dormant during “normal times” but have tremendous effects once they act. Furthermore, understanding when and how governments solicit and constructively engage sound scientific advice is crucial in preparing for other probable pandemics. While our conclusions are bound to be tentative as the pandemic is still unfolding, we can capitalize on – and add to – the growing multi-disciplinary body of knowledge on technocratic governance, populism, the politics of policy advice, health system sustainability, outbreak management, and international cooperation across political science, public administration, public health, economics, sociology, international relations, and meta-research.
We invite contributions that address this topic along the lines of three sets of broad questions;
1. When did governments listen to experts? Specifically, under what conditions did governments around the world demonstrate openness in soliciting, competence in managing, and effectiveness in channelling expert policy advice on Covid-19 and its socioeconomic impacts?
2. Under what conditions had expert advice been conducive – or not – for effective government response in tackling the Covid-19 crisis and its socioeconomic effects? How much did this depend on who was listened to? Who were these “experts”? How much did the usefulness of their input depend on the composition, structure, institutions, and quality of the government? When did experts facilitate or when did they delay decision-making? What role did other societal actors play in the context of interactions between governments and experts?
3. What can we learn from these interactions about the origins, politics and effectiveness of expert advice in tackling similar changes and beyond?
We aim for a worldwide coverage of these topics. We are especially interested in the following article types accepted by the journal: Original Research, Methods, Policy and Practice Review, Hypothesis and Theory, Data Report, Policy Brief, and Brief Research Report. We particularly welcome articles that present in-depth, comparative, and interdisciplinary takes on the issue, qualitative and quantitative alike.
Keywords: Covid-19, Technocracy, Expert Advice, Policy, Democracy, Trust
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.