After the "honeymoon", what is next? COVID-19 policies in Europe beyond the first wave.

This special issue is the sequelto the issue on COVID-19 policies published in European Policy Analysis in fall 2020, which focused on the European countries' early responses to the pandemic. The collection aims to go beyond the "honeymoon" phase of the outbreak, that is, the first wave. The selected cases-Sweden, Greece and Cyprus, Germany, Turkey, Hungary, and the Eurozone-provide a variety of national features in terms of political systems, institutional structures, and policy styles. The featured articles adopt different theoretical perspectives and are authored by scholars from a variety of disciplines, who pursue both interpretative and explanatory goals by focusing on policy adoption, policy perception, and learning opportunities, but also on local pandemic management and policy outcomes. A fil rouge unites the featured contributions: they all show the importance of analyzing change over sufficiently long timeframes, to capture the complexity of existing trends.

Este número especial es la continuación del número sobre las políticas de COVID­19 publicado en European Policy Analysis en el otoño de 2020, que se centró en las primeras respuestas de los países europeos a la pandemia. La colección pretende ir más allá de la fase de "luna de miel" del brote, es decir, la primera ola. Los casos seleccionados (Suecia, Grecia y Chipre, Alemania, Turquía, Hungría y la Eurozona) brindan una variedad de características nacionales en términos de sistemas políticos, estructuras institucionales y estilos de políticas. Los artículos presentados adoptan diferentes perspectivas teóricas y están escritos por académicos de una variedad de disciplinas, que persiguen objetivos interpretativos y explicativos centrándose en la adopción de políticas, la percepción de políticas y las oportunidades de aprendizaje, pero también en la gestión local de pandemias y los resultados de las políticas. Un fil rouge une las contribuciones destacadas: todas muestran la importancia de analizar el cambio durante períodos de tiempo suficientemente largos, para capturar la complejidad de las tendencias existentes.

Evidence-Based Policymaking in Times of Acute Crisis: Comparing the Use of Scientific Knowledge in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.

This article studies how different systems of policy advice are suited to provide relevant knowledge in times of acute crisis. The notion of evidence-based policymaking (EBP) originated in the successful 1997 New Labour program in the United Kingdom to formulate policy based not on ideology but on sound empirical evidence. We provide a brief overview of the history of the concept and the current debates around it. We then outline the main characteristics of the policy advisory systems in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy through which scientific knowledge-in the form of either person-bound expertise or evidence generated through standard scientific processes-was fed into policy formulation processes before the COVID-19 crisis. Whereas EBP takes place in the form of institutionalized advisory bodies and draws on expertise rather than on evidence in Germany, the system in Switzerland focuses more on the use of evidence provided through external mandates. Italy has a hybrid politicized expert system. The article then analyzes how this different prioritization of expertise vs. evidence in the three countries affects policymakers' capacity to include scientific knowledge in policy decisions in times of acute crisis. The comparison of the three countries implies that countries with policy advisory systems designed to use expertise are better placed to incorporate scientific knowledge into their decisions in times of acute crisis than are countries with policy advisory systems that relied primarily on evidence before the COVID-19 crisis. Supplementary Information: The online version of this article (10.1007/s11615-022-00382-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Evidence-Based Policymaking in Times of Acute Crisis: Comparing the Use of Scientific Knowledge in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy Evidenzbasierte Politikgestaltung in Krisenzeiten: Ein Vergleich der Verwendung von wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen in Deutschland, der Schweiz und Italien

This article studies how different systems of policy advice are suited to provide relevant knowledge in times of acute crisis. The notion of evidence-based policymaking (EBP) originated in the successful 1997 New Labour program in the United Kingdom to formulate policy based not on ideology but on sound empirical evidence. We provide a brief overview of the history of the concept and the current debates around it. We then outline the main characteristics of the policy advisory systems in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy through which scientific knowledge—in the form of either person-bound expertise or evidence generated through standard scientific processes—was fed into policy formulation processes before the COVID-19 crisis. Whereas EBP takes place in the form of institutionalized advisory bodies and draws on expertise rather than on evidence in Germany, the system in Switzerland focuses more on the use of evidence provided through external mandates. Italy has a hybrid politicized expert system. The article then analyzes how this different prioritization of expertise vs. evidence in the three countries affects policymakers’ capacity to include scientific knowledge in policy decisions in times of acute crisis. The comparison of the three countries implies that countries with policy advisory systems designed to use expertise are better placed to incorporate scientific knowledge into their decisions in times of acute crisis than are countries with policy advisory systems that relied primarily on evidence before the COVID-19 crisis. Supplementary Information The online version of this article (10.1007/s11615-022-00382-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Switzerland's COVID-19 policy response: Consociational crisis management and neo-corporatist reopening.

Switzerland responded to the first COVID-19 wave fairly successfully by employing both public health and economic measures. During the state of emergency, the federal government made a firm decision to flatten the infection curve and to protect especially at-risk populations. During the lockdown period, the focus of the political debate shifted from health to the economy as the Federal Council (i.e., the national executive) started to prepare for the country's reopening. While government still had full power due to the emergency situation defined under national epidemic law, the shift in the debate also meant a shift in the way that the government made decisions. Switzerland is a power-sharing consociational democracy with strong neo-corporatist features. While the executive untypically relied heavily on health experts within and outside the administration during the lockdown, the reopening strategy shows clear features of Swiss neo-corporatism, including the resurgence and influence of the traditional big economic vested interests over the government's approach to decision making.

Suiza respondió a la primera ola de COVID­19 con bastante éxito empleando medidas económicas y de salud pública. Durante el estado de emergencia, el gobierno federal tomó la firme decisión de aplanar la curva de infección y proteger a las poblaciones de riesgo. Durante el período de bloqueo, el foco del debate político pasó de la salud a la economía cuando el Consejo Federal comenzó a preparar la reapertura. Si bien el gobierno todavía tenía pleno poder debido a la situación de emergencia definida por la ley epidémica, el cambio en el debate también significó un cambio en la forma en que el gobierno tomaba decisiones. Suiza es una democracia consociacional de poder compartido con fuertes rasgos neocorporativistas. Si bien, de manera atípica, el Ejecutivo se basó en gran medida en expertos en salud dentro y fuera de la administración durante el cierre, la estrategia de reapertura muestra rasgos claros del neocorporativismo suizo, incluido el resurgimiento del gran actor económico tradicional en el proceso de toma de decisiones.