Democracy and technocracy in Sweden's Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Sweden’s management of the coronavirus pandemic, beginning in early 2020, hasbeen much discussed because it deviated from other countries’ equivalents. Set inthe context of scholarly debate about the balance between politicians and experts inpolitical decision-making, we argue that a necessary condition for this case of Swedishexceptionalism was the manner of policy-making adopted by the Swedish authorities. Inthis article, we describe this policy-making procedure, which involved a radical form ofdelegation by elected politicians to appointed experts, and seek to explain how it cameabout. We focus on the 1st year of the pandemic, and use media reports and other publicdocuments, including parts of a public inquiry, as our empirical material.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Covid-19

Democracy

Expert

Pandemic

Sweden

Policy

Politics

Politics, Economy and the Organization of Society

Politik, ekonomi och samhällets organisering

Politics, Economy and the Organization of Society

Politik, ekonomi och samhällets organisering

Statsvetenskap

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)