Comparative Covid Response: Crisis, Knowledge, Politics

What makes expert knowledge credible, legitimate, and reliable for use in public policy?

Together with colleagues from TUM and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Prof. Sebastian Pfotenhauer analyzed Germany’s political pandemic response as part of a larger comparative study organized by Harvard, Cornell, and Columbia universities and funded by the National Science Foundation and Schmidt Futures. This research, undertaken by 78 researchers from 47 institutions, examines how public trust, leadership, and political culture have impacted 23 nations’ COVID-19 responses. It pinpoints pre-existing societal conditions which significantly affected countries’ abilities to successfully respond to COVID-19.

Download the summary here.

The full report is available for download here.