PhD in public policy: How do expert arguments survive in policy decisions?

The COVID-19 crisis provides an almost unique possibility of investigating a ‘natural experiment’ where similar countries have responded differently to very similar problems. Notwithstanding diverging national policy responses to the pandemic, governments worldwide have relied on expert advice to design ‘policy solutions’. In fact, the role of experts and their access to the political arena has been unusually conspicuous during the COVID-19 crisis. This project will investigate the conditions for the survival of expert arguments (compared to political and interest-based considerations) in policy decisions and it will explain the reasons for variations over time and between countries through comparative case studies (Belgium, Netherlands, Austria)