EScAPE White Paper 2021.01
E pur si muove - How tensions between experts and policy-makers shape the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland

by Marjolaine Viret
University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Discussions on the appropriate role of expert advice in policy-making, though far from new, have entered mainstream awareness as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the allocation of attributions may appear straightforward in theory and in the abstract – the expert provides specialised input and advice, the policy-maker decides – the lines are easily blurred in practice. The discussion escalated into a genuine public outcry in Switzerland in early March 2021, after a Committee of the Swiss Parliament announced a law amendment proposal aimed at defining who should have authority to communicate on COVID-19 related policies towards the Swiss public. Read more ...

Citation:

Viret, M., 2021. E pur si muove - How tensions between experts and policy-makers shape the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland. EScAPE White Paper 2021.01, April 7.