Paths, Punctuations and Policy Learning: Comparing Patterns of European use of Scientific Expertise during the Covid-19 Crisis

The article examines changes in the role and position of experts in policy making in the EU member states and four additional West European mature democracies during the Covid-19 pandemic. Unique survey data is employed to establish fit with competing theoretical understandings of policy learning from three distinct approaches of historical institutionalism: path dependency, punctuated equilibrium and ideational change. Despite the gravity of the crisis and institutional variation in sample countries, surprisingly strong support for path dependency is observed.