Muting Science: Input Overload Versus Scientific Advice in Swiss Policy Making During the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Area of Science:

• Political Science
• Public Health Policy
• Epidemiology

Background:

• During the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, a divergence emerged between scientific epidemiological consensus and the decisions of Swiss federal political bodies.
• Understanding this reluctance is crucial for improving public health crisis response and policy-making.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the reasons behind the Swiss Federal Council and Parliament's hesitation to adopt majority scientific recommendations during the Covid-19 pandemic's second wave.
• To propose an institutionalist explanation for this policy-making dynamic.

Main Methods:

• An institutionalist analysis was employed to examine the Swiss federal political system's structure and decision-making processes.
• The study conceptualizes 'input overload' as a key factor influencing policy responses.

Main Results:

• The Swiss federal political system is characterized by simultaneous inputs from corporatist, pluralist, federalist, and direct democratic subsystems.
• The addition of scientific input during the pandemic exacerbated this 'input overload'.
• To manage this overload and preserve discretionary power, the federal government appears to have strategically limited scientific advice.

Conclusions:

• Input overload within the Swiss political system is a significant factor explaining the reluctance to fully integrate scientific epidemiological advice.
• The government's strategy to mitigate overload involved actively managing and potentially reducing scientific input to maintain policy-making autonomy during the Covid-19 crisis.