Public assessments of ministerial leadership in times of national crisis: The case of the pandemic crisis

Public administration and political science researchers have debated what constitutes effective ministerial leadership in presidential governments. Some argue that, looking at it from the chief executive's perspective, ministers ought to be capable of supporting her policy programs, but others, taking the bureaucrats' point of view, contend that ministers need to be experienced in managing agencies and executing policy correctly. However, there has been a lack of research on the public assessments of ministerial leadership, particularly in times of crisis. We contribute experimental evidence by analyzing original survey data on more than 1200 South Korean citizens collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that, overall, citizens are more likely to endorse ministers' technical expertise and management abilities than their political skills during a crisis. Moreover, as the impact of a national crisis becomes more severe, the levels of support enjoyed by ministers with technical expertise increase more than the support given to ministers with other skills.