COVID-19 AND POLICY-MAKING: RESPONSES AND APPROACHES

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Political Sciences Department, Law and Political Sciences Faculty, Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch, Tehran / Iran

Abstract

The world is in the grip of a crisis that stands unprecedented in living memory. The COVID-19 pandemic is urgent, global in scale, and massive in impacts. Following Harold D. Lasswell’s approach to offer insights into unfolding phenomena in political science, this paper uses the lessons of the policy sciences literature to understand the dynamics of COVID-19. In this research, using observation as the research tool, some methods are used according which it is identified that scientific and technical expertise, emotions, and narratives and messaging influence policy decisions and shape relationships among citizens, organizations, and governments. In addition, varied processes of adaptation and change, including learning, surges in policy responses, changes in networks (locally and globally), implementing and managing policies across trans-boundary issues, and assessing policy success and failure are discussed. The results show that identifying understudied aspects of the political sciences and policy sciences deserve more attention in the pandemic’s aftermath.

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