Bespoke scapegoats: Scientific advisory bodies and blame avoidance in the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond

TL;DR

This paper investigates why many governments formed ad hoc scientific advisory bodies during COVID-19, revealing they serve as scapegoats to deflect blame and suggesting reforms for broader, more accountable membership.

Contribution

It provides an exploratory analysis of the political function of ad hoc scientific advisory bodies during COVID-19 across multiple countries, highlighting their role in blame avoidance.

Findings

ahSABs are created to excuse unpopular policies and take blame.

Membership is typically narrow, limiting perspectives.

Sweden's case supports the general principles.

Abstract

Scholars have not asked why so many governments created ad hoc scientific advisory bodies (ahSABs) to address the Covid-19 pandemic instead of relying on existing public health infrastructure. We address this neglected question with an exploratory study of the US, UK, Sweden, Italy, Poland, and Uganda. Drawing on our case studies and the blame-avoidance literature, we find that ahSABs are created to excuse unpopular policies and take the blame should things go wrong. Thus, membership typically represents a narrow range of perspectives. An ahSAB is a good scapegoat because it does little to reduce government discretion and has limited ability to deflect blame back to government. Our explanation of our deviant case of Sweden, that did not create and ahSAB, reinforces our general principles. We draw the policy inference that ahSAB membership should be vetted by the legislature to ensure broad membership.