IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/porgrv/v22y2022i2d10.1007_s11115-022-00635-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Technocratic Decision-Making in Times of Crisis? The Use of Data for Scientific Policy Advice in Germany’s COVID-19 Management

Author

Listed:
  • Sabine Kuhlmann

    (University of Potsdam)

  • Jochen Franzke

    (University of Potsdam)

  • Benoît Paul Dumas

    (University of Potsdam)

Abstract

COVID-19 has demonstrated the importance of data for scientific policy advice. Mechanisms by which data is generated, shared, and ultimately lead to policy responses are crucial for enhancing transparency and legitimacy of decisions. At the same time, the volume, complexity and volatility of data are growing. Against this background, mechanisms, actors, and problems of data-driven scientific policy advice are analysed. The study reveals role conflicts, ambiguities, and tensions in the interaction between scientific advisors and policy-makers. The assumption of a technocratic model, promoted by well-established structures and functioning processes of data-driven government, cannot be confirmed. Reality largely corresponds to the pragmatic model, in parts also the decisionist model, albeit with dysfunctional characteristics.

Suggested Citation

  • Sabine Kuhlmann & Jochen Franzke & Benoît Paul Dumas, 2022. "Technocratic Decision-Making in Times of Crisis? The Use of Data for Scientific Policy Advice in Germany’s COVID-19 Management," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 269-289, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:porgrv:v:22:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s11115-022-00635-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11115-022-00635-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11115-022-00635-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11115-022-00635-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nataliia Sokolovska & Benedikt Fecher & Gert G. Wagner, 2019. "Communication on the Science-Policy Interface: An Overview of Conceptual Models," Publications, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-15, November.
    2. Kayser, Victoria & Blind, Knut, 2017. "Extending the knowledge base of foresight: The contribution of text mining," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 208-215.
    3. Ulrich Glogowsky & Emanuel Hansen & Simeon Schächtele, 2021. "How effective are social distancing policies? Evidence on the fight against COVID-19," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-12, September.
    4. Schmidt, Christoph M., 2020. "Vorwärts mit Corona-Dashboard: Politische Entscheidungen auf Indikatorensystem zu Gesundheit, Wirtschaft und sozialen Aspekten basieren," RWI Positionen 77, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung.
    5. Johanna Schnabel & Yvonne Hegele, 2021. "Explaining Intergovernmental Coordination during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Responses in Australia, Canada, Germany, and Switzerland," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 51(4), pages 537-569.
    6. Fritz Sager & Céline Mavrot & Markus Hinterleitner & David Kaufmann & Martin Grosjean & Thomas F. Stocker, 2020. "Utilization-focused scientific policy advice: a six-point checklist," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(10), pages 1336-1343, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Brinks, Verena & Ibert, Oliver, 2023. "Experts in crisis: The wide spectrum of advisors for coping with extreme events," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 92, pages 1-13.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hinterlang, Natascha & Moyen, Stephane & Röhe, Oke & Stähler, Nikolai, 2023. "Gauging the effects of the German COVID-19 fiscal stimulus package," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    2. Miloš Ulman & Pavel Šimek & Jan Masner & Pavel Kogut & Tuula Löytty & Patrick Crehan & Karel Charvát & Antoni Oliva & Stein Runar Bergheim & Milan Kalaš & Denis Kolokol & Tommaso Sabbatini, 2020. "Towards Future Oriented Collaborative Policy Development for Rural Areas and People," AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 12(01), March.
    3. Pratiwi, Santi & Juerges, Nataly, 2022. "Digital advocacy at the science-policy interface: Resolving land-use conflicts in conservation forests," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    4. Bartscher, Alina Kristin & Seitz, Sebastian & Siegloch, Sebastian & Slotwinski, Michaela & Wehrhöfer, Nils, 2021. "Social capital and the spread of covid-19: Insights from european countries," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    5. Reinhold Kosfeld & Timo Mitze & Johannes Rode & Klaus Wälde, 2021. "The Covid‐19 containment effects of public health measures: A spatial difference‐in‐differences approach," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 799-825, September.
    6. Zbyslaw Dobrowolski, 2020. "The supreme audit institutions readiness to uncertainty," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 8(1), pages 513-525, September.
    7. Violetta Wilk & Helen Cripps & Alexandru Capatina & Adrian Micu & Angela-Eliza Micu, 2021. "The state of #digitalentrepreneurship: a big data Leximancer analysis of social media activity," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 1899-1916, December.
    8. Gert G. Wagner, 2019. "Eine Ethik der Politikberatung gehört zur Forschungsethik," RatSWD Working Papers 269, German Data Forum (RatSWD).
    9. Grover, Purva & Kar, Arpan Kumar & Dwivedi, Yogesh K. & Janssen, Marijn, 2019. "Polarization and acculturation in US Election 2016 outcomes – Can twitter analytics predict changes in voting preferences," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 438-460.
    10. Prabhsimran Singh & Surleen Kaur & Abdullah M. Baabdullah & Yogesh K. Dwivedi & Sandeep Sharma & Ravinder Singh Sawhney & Ronnie Das, 2023. "Is #SDG13 Trending Online? Insights from Climate Change Discussions on Twitter," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 199-219, February.
    11. Hyundong Nam & Taewoo Nam, 2021. "Exploring Strategic Directions of Pandemic Crisis Management: A Text Analysis of World Economic Forum COVID-19 Reports," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-19, April.
    12. Christopher W. H. Davis & Antonie J. Jetter & Philippe J. Giabbanelli, 2022. "Automatically Generating Scenarios from a Text Corpus: A Case Study on Electric Vehicles," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-21, June.
    13. Gaofei Wang & Yi Yang, 2024. "Quantitative Evaluation of Digital Economy Policy in Heilongjiang Province of China Based on the PMC-AE Index Model," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(1), pages 21582440241, March.
    14. Christian Alemán-Pericón & Alexander Ludwig & Christopher Busch & Raül Santaeulà lia-Llopis, 2022. "A Stage-Based Identification of Policy Effects," Working Papers 1369, Barcelona School of Economics.
    15. Steffen Juranek & Floris T. Zoutman, 2021. "The effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions on the demand for health care and on mortality: evidence from COVID-19 in Scandinavia," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 1299-1320, October.
    16. Kristóf Gyódi & Łukasz Nawaro & Michał Paliński & Maciej Wilamowski, 2023. "Informing policy with text mining: technological change and social challenges," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 933-954, February.
    17. Ashouri, Sajad & Hajikhani, Arash & Suominen, Arho & Pukelis, Lukas & Cunningham, Scott W., 2024. "Measuring digitalization at scale using web scraped data," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    18. Park, Seona & Yun, Sun-Jin & Cho, Kongjang, 2022. "Public dialogue as a collaborative planning process for offshore wind energy projects: Implications from a text analysis of a South Korean case," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    19. Delhaes, Jörg M. & Vieira, Ana C.L. & Oliveira, Mónica D., 2024. "Natural language processing for participatory corporate foresight: The participant input analyzer for identifying biases and fallacies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    20. Prabhsimran Singh & Yogesh K. Dwivedi & Karanjeet Singh Kahlon & Ravinder Singh Sawhney & Ali Abdallah Alalwan & Nripendra P. Rana, 2020. "Smart Monitoring and Controlling of Government Policies Using Social Media and Cloud Computing," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 315-337, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:porgrv:v:22:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s11115-022-00635-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.