Institutional boundaries and the challenges of aligning science advice and policy dynamics: the UK and Canada in the time of COVID-19

Carolyn Hughes Tuohy, Gwyn Bevan and Adalsteinn D. Brown

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This comparison of institutions of science advice during COVID-19 between the Westminster systems of England/UK and Ontario/Canada focuses on the role of science in informing public policy in two central components of the response to the pandemic: the adoption of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and the procuring of vaccines. It compares and contrasts established and purpose-built bodies with varying degrees of independence from the political executive, and shows how each attempted to manage the tensions between scientific and governmental logics of accountability as they negotiated the boundary between science and policy. It uses the comparison to suggest potential lessons about the relative merits and drawbacks of different institutional arrangements for science advice to governments in an emergency.

Keywords: Covid-19; coronavirus; institutions of science; comparative institutional analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J01 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 18 pages
Date: 2023-10-13
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Published in Health Economics, Policy and Law, 13, October, 2023, 18(4), pp. 377 - 394. ISSN: 1744-1331

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:120777

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