Special issue blog series on Policy Expertise in Times of Crisis
Kennet Lynggaard, Theofanis Exadaktylos, Mads Jensen & Michael Kluth
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, many of us would probably have been a little hesitant on the exact field of work, or even unaware of the existence, of experts such as a mathematical virologist or experimental epidemiologist. Well into the pandemic, after several lockdowns and reopening of societies, highly specialised concepts from virology and epidemiology had entered everyday conversations, just like experts involved in handling the pandemic have become household names and, in many countries, even minor celebrities.
Our article, just published in Policy & Politics, assesses the role for experts during the various stages of the pandemic, based on evidence collected from a survey of comparative politics scholars from 31 European countries in 2022, which you can find more detail on in the book: Governments’ Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic in Europe: Navigating the Perfect Storm 2023. In our P&P article, we analysed the role of experts during the processes of depoliticisation and re-politicisation at each stage of the pandemic, alongside their influence on government responses to the pandemic. We propose a new typology, classifying four different ideal types of roles for experts: leading, antagonistic, managerial, and auxiliary – see figure 1.
Our findings show the multiple and varied roles of experts in policymaking and how their roles often changed during different stages in the crisis. Experts are often used by political actors to legitimise decisions, or experts themselves turn into political actors within politicised decision environments. During the pandemic, a dramatic shift of the role of experts occurred. Even in countries whose experts previously had an auxiliary role, leading on policy decisions became the norm.
Our study showed that, by the end of the pandemic, the roles of experts had either only partly, or not at all, returned to normal. This suggests enduring changes in the roles of experts in consequence of the crisis may have occurred. Additionally, in terms of policy recommendations, our findings suggest a need for adapting policy-making processes to include expert knowledge more flexibly, considering the changing influence of experts in crisis situations. Finally, we recommend that further research is needed on the medium- to long term implications of crisis situations on how experts and expertise are involved in policymaking.
This blog post draws on the Policy & Politics article:
Lynggaard, K., Exadaktylos, T., Dagnis Jensen, M., & Kluth, M. (2024). Mapping the changing role of expertise in COVID-19 politics in Europe. Policy & Politics, 52(1), 44-66 from https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2023D000000022
Kennet Lynggaard is Associate Professor in European Politics at Roskilde University. He is the author of Discourse Analysis and European Union Politics 2019 and co-editor of Governments’ Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic in Europe: Navigating the Perfect Storm (2023) and Research Methods in European Union Studies (2015) (with I. Manners & K. Löfgren). Find his academic profile here. Follow Kennet Lynggaard on Twitter @KennetLynggaard // Roskilde University @roskildeuni
Theofanis Exadaktylos is Professor of European Politics at the Department of Politics, University of Surrey. He is the co-editor of “Policy Styles and Trust in the Age of Pandemics: Global Threat, National Responses” (Routledge). He is currently editor of the European Political Science Review. His research focuses on Europeanization, European Union politics and public policy, political trust and policy responses and has published in international peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of European Integration, Policy Studies Journal, European Policy Analysis among others. He is the co-convenor of the ECPR’s Standing Group of Political Methodology.
Mads Dagnis Jensen is an Associate Professor at the Copenhagen Business School in the Department of International Economics, Government, and Business. He is the co-editor of Governments’ Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic in Europe: Navigating the Perfect Storm (2023). Most recently, he has been the guest editor of a Journal of European Public Policy special issue entitled Regional Inequality and Political Discontent in Europe with Anders Ejrnæs, Dominik Schraff and Sofia Vasilopoulou. Follow Mads Dagnis Jensen on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/MadsDagnis or on his personal website https://www.madsdagnisjensen.com/
Michael Kluth is Associate Professor at the Department of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde University, Denmark. He is the co-editor of Governments’ Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic in Europe: Navigating the Perfect Storm (2023). His research focuses on Comparative Politics, Public Procurement, European Politics and he has published in various journals, including West European Politics, European Security, European Politics and Society and European Foreign Affairs Review.
Table of contents for special issue blog series on Policy Expertise in Times of Crisis
Policy expertise in times of crisis
Peter Aagaard, Marleen Easton, and Brian W. Head
Analysing expert advice on political decisions in times of crisis
Peter Aagaard, Sevasti Chatzopoulou, and Birgitte Poulsen
Mapping the changing role of expertise in COVID-19 politics in Europe
Kennet Lynggaard, Theofanis Exadaktylos, Mads Dagnis Jensen, and Michael Kluth
Expert perspectives on the changing dynamics of policy advisory systems: the COVID-19 crisis and policy learning in Belgium and Australia
Marleen Easton, Jennifer Yarnold, Valerie Vervaenen, Jasper De Paepe, and Brian W. Head
Investigating the scientific knowledge–policy interface in EU climate policy [Open access]
Claire Dupont, Jeffrey Rosamond, and Bishoy L. Zaki
The promise and performance of data ecosystems: Australia’s COVID-19 response [Open access]
Cosmo Howard and Bernadette Hyland-Wood
The challenges experts face during creeping crises: the curse of complacency
Ahmad Wesal Zaman, Olivier Rubin, and Reidar Staupe-Delgado
