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Expert-Led Securitization: The Case of the 2009 Pandemic in Denmark and Sweden

Author

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  • Olivier Rubin

    (Department of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde University, Denmark)

  • Erik Baekkeskov

    (School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Australia)

Abstract

This article goes beyond the study of speech acts to investigate the process of securitization during a health crisis. The article introduces the concept of ‘expert-led securitization’ to account for situations when experts dominate the administrative process that translates a securitizing speech act into extraordinary public policy. Expert-led securitization was particularly salient during the 2009 pandemic flu in Denmark and Sweden. Autonomous public health expert agencies led the national securitization processes, and these never included intense political battles or extensive public debates. In turn, the respective processes resulted in different policies: Sweden’s main response to the pandemic was an extraordinary push to vaccinate its whole population, while Denmark’s was a one-off offer of vaccination to about twenty percent of its people. Hence, the 2009 pandemic example illustrates the added value of investigating the administrative dynamics of securitization when seeking to understand differences in extraordinary policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Olivier Rubin & Erik Baekkeskov, 2020. "Expert-Led Securitization: The Case of the 2009 Pandemic in Denmark and Sweden," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 319-330.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v8:y:2020:i:4:p:319-330
    DOI: 10.17645/pag.v8i4.2982
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Stefan Elbe, 2011. "Pandemics on the Radar Screen: Health Security, Infectious Disease and the Medicalisation of Insecurity," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 59(4), pages 848-866, December.
    2. Thomas Abraham, 2011. "The Chronicle of a Disease Foretold: Pandemic H1N1 and the Construction of a Global Health Security Threat," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 59(4), pages 797-812, December.
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    4. Erik Baekkeskov, 2016. "Explaining science-led policy-making: pandemic deaths, epistemic deliberation and ideational trajectories," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 49(4), pages 395-419, December.
    5. Anne Roemer-Mahler & Stefan Elbe, 2016. "The race for Ebola drugs: pharmaceuticals, security and global health governance," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 487-506, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Dorothea Hilhorst & Kees Boersma & Emmanuel Raju, 2020. "Research on Politics of Disaster Risk Governance: Where Are We Headed?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 214-219.

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