政治对科学的遮蔽机制及其成因分析——基于美国疫情治理初期实践的考察

Analysis on the mechanisms and causes of political overshadowing on science--Based on the early pandemic governance in the U.S.

科学被认为有助于增强疫情治理成效,为何却在一些情况下无法发挥应有的作用?美国在新冠疫情初期陷入治理低效的困境,为认识上述问题提供了典型案例。综合分析其政策内容和执行情况可以发现,政治遮蔽科学是其治理低效的重要原因。遮蔽机制体现着政治对科学的压制,可从治理目标、意见表达和运行逻辑等三个维度上展开分析。具体而言,以经济绩效目标扭曲科学防疫目标、以政治偏好约束科学意见表达、以政治逻辑替代科学逻辑等压制性措施直接导致了治理低效困境,而特朗普政府的权威主义化则是遮蔽机制的发生根源。政治对科学的遮蔽可能出现在现代国家治理的诸多领域,其遮蔽程度、类型、动因等仍有待更深入的讨论。

Why does science,which is believed by academics and practitioners as enhancing the effectiveness of pandemic governance,fail to perform as well as it should in some cases?The U.S.,with its world-leading scientific and technological capabilities and conditions conducive to pandemic governance,provides a case in point for understanding this issue by falling into the dilemma of ineffective governance in the early stages of the pandemic.Scholars'discussions of U.S.pandemic governance from the perspectives of political institutions,political culture,or social inequality cannot adequately explain the paradoxical problem of scientific advantages and governance inefficiency.A comprehensive analysis of its policy contents and implementation in the early stages of U.S.pandemic governance reveals that political overshadowing on science is the important cause of ineffective governance.Existing studies usually discuss the four mechanisms of political intervention in science in the context of the"goal-instrument"relationship,including constraint,intermediate,oversight,and exploitation.Unlike these four mechanisms,The mechanisms of overshadowing is the act of policymakers who put political interests first in scientific issues and repress science through a series of measures,resulting in the alienation of scientific issues into political issues,and can be analyzed from three dimensions of governance goals,expression of opinions,and operational logic.Specifically,in the early governance practices of the U.S.pandemic,repressive measures such as distorting scientific prevention goals with economic performance goals,constraining the expression of scientific opinions with political preferences,and alternating scientific logic with political logic directly led to the dilemma of ineffective governance.So why does politics overshadow science?Established explanations for the causes of intervening mechanisms usually unfold along the lines of political identity pressures or institutional pressures,but fail to adequately respond to the reasons why the overshadowing mechanisms occur.Research has found that the authoritarianization of the Trump administration is the root cause for the occurrence of the overshadowing.Trump's pursuit of power and authority during his presidency has characterized the authoritarianization of the federal government,leading to the political overshadowing on science in the pandemic governance.The political preference for decision-making provides the motivation for the overshadowing mechanisms;the expansion of power by political leaders creates the conditions;and political leaders use the anti-intellectual trend to create the environment.Political overshadowing on science may occur in many areas of modern state governance,and the overshadowing issue still requires further discussion in terms of its extent,types,and motivations.