Abstract

The case of the management of the COVID-19 emergency in Italy showed by the growing influence of professionals from the medical environment on the institutional decision-making bodies. To investigate this phenomenon, an analysis of the decision-making arena during the first wave of the pandemic crisis (February-May 2020) was conducted resorting to the minutes of the meetings of the Technical Scientific Committee (TSC), appointed by the Civil Protection Department (CPD) of the Italian government. The analysis revealed an ‘actor constellation’ in which the TSC centralized the decisionmaking and exercised a permanent influence on the government, while the circuit of the political representation (national legislature, regional and local government) resulted marginalized