The devil-angel shift in times of crisis: How Swiss scientists used policy narratives during the Covid-19 pandemic

Scientists and scientific knowledge played a major role in the policy-making process during the Covid-19 pandemic. This has attracted the interest of policy sciences (Hadorn et al. 2022; Eichenberger et al. 2023; Armingeon and Sager 2022). Also, scholarship about policy narratives has started to study the happenings of the Covid-19 pandemic (Apriliyanti et al. 2021; Mintrom and O’Connor 2020). However, the use of policy narratives by scientists generally and during the pandemic has not been studied yet. This paper will fill that gap by developing an understanding of how scientists used policy narratives in public debates during the Covid-19 pandemic in Switzerland. Building on the work of Chang and Koebele (2020), who suggest that reform-focused or status-quo-oriented policy positions influence the use of the devil-angel shift, I argue that the dynamic policy process during the pandemic is a unique possibility to test NPF hypotheses regarding the use of this strategy. Since scientists' recommendations during the Covid-19 pandemic in Switzerland did not always coincide with the government’s position (Eichenberger et al. 2023), in the course of the pandemic they were sometimes supporting the status quo and sometimes a reform on the same set of policy issues. This setting allows me to test, whether the same group uses the devil-angel shift differently, depending on their policy position being the status-quo or reform-focused. Previous studies have only used settings with stable coalitions to test related hypotheses (Chang and Koebele 2020; Gottlieb et al. 2018). Methodologically, I will employ quantitative content analysis of Swiss newspapers. References Apriliyanti, Indri Dwi; Utomo, Wisnu Prasetya; Purwanto, Erwan Agus (2021): Examining the policy narratives and the role of the media in policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis in Indonesia. In Journal of Asian Public Policy, pp. 1–17. DOI: 10.1080/17516234.2021.1954770. Armingeon, Klaus; Sager, Fritz (2022): Muting Science: Input Overload Versus Scientific Advice in Swiss Policy Making During the Covid‐19 Pandemic. In The Political Quarterly. Chang, Katherine T.; Koebele, Elizabeth A. (2020): What Drives Coalitions' Narrative Strategy? Exploring Policy Narratives around School Choice. In Politics & Policy 48 (4), pp. 618–657. DOI: 10.1111/polp.12367. Eichenberger, Steven; Varone, Frédéric; Sciarini, Pascal; Stähli, Robin; Proulx, Jessica (2023): When do decision makers listen (less) to experts? The Swiss government's implementation of scientific advice during the COVID ‐19 crisis. In Policy Stud J, Article psj.12494. DOI: 10.1111/psj.12494. Gottlieb, Madeline; Bertone Oehninger, Ernst; Arnold, Gwen (2018): “No Fracking Way” vs. “Drill Baby Drill”: A Restructuring of Who Is Pitted Against Whom in the Narrative Policy Framework. In Policy Studies Journal 46 (4), pp. 798–827. DOI: 10.1111/psj.12291. Hadorn, Susanne; Sager, Fritz; Mavrot, Céline; Malandrino, Anna; Ege, Jörn (2022): Evidence-Based Policymaking in Times of Acute Crisis: Comparing the Use of Scientific Knowledge in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. In Politische Vierteljahresschrift, pp. 1–24. Mintrom, Michael; O’Connor, Ruby (2020): The importance of policy narrative: effective government responses to Covid-19. In Policy Design and Practice 3 (3), pp. 205–227. DOI: 10.1080/25741292.2020.1813358.