scholarly journals RETHINKING EVIDENCE-BASED POLICY

2021 ◽  
Vol 255 ◽  
pp. 85-91
Author(s):  
Adrian Pabst
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Probabilistic Models ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Behavioural Science ◽  
Individual Behaviour ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Radical Uncertainty

Much of public policy-making has in recent decades been driven by the idea of evidence-based policy – policy rooted in the principles of social science and, more specifically, empirical validation based on social and behavioural science. This article argues that evidence-based policy, while helping to improve the design of policies aimed at changing individual behaviour, lacks a recognition that individual and group choices are embedded in social relationships and institutions. There is a risk of over-relying not only on probabilistic models that under-state our condition of ‘radical uncertainty’ but also on data and metrics that are disconnected from the everyday experience of workers and citizens whose needs and interests cannot always be measured or managed. Since uncertainty is a fundamental reality of both the economy and social life, policy-making needs robust conceptual narratives to make sense of numbers and provide a sound basis on which to make decisions allied to ethical judgements.

Crisis knowledge management: Reconfiguring the behavioural science community for rapid responding in the Covid-19 crisis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrike Hahn ◽  
David Lagnado ◽  
Stephan Lewandowsky ◽  
Nick Chater
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Behavioural Science ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
Science Community ◽  
Minimal Damage ◽  
Support Evidence

The present crisis demands an all-out response if it is to be mastered with minimal damage. This means we, as the behavioural science community, need to think about how we can adapt to best support evidence-based policy in a rapidly changing, high-stakes environment. This piece is an attempt to initiate this process. The ‘recommendations’ made are first stabs that will hopefully be critiqued, debated and improved.

Can Complexity Move UK Policy beyond ‘Evidence-Based Policy Making’ and the ‘Audit Culture’? Applying a ‘Complexity Cascade’ to Education and Health Policy

2011 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Geyer
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Policy Response ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Visual Metaphor ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Audit Culture ◽  
Education And Health ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
The Uk

For much of the twentieth century UK public policy has been based on a strong centralist, rationalist and managerialist framework. This orientation was significantly amplified by New Labour in the 1990s and 2000s, leading to the development of ‘evidence-based policy making’ (EBPM) and the ‘audit culture’ – a trend that looks set to continue under the current government. Substantial criticisms have been raised against the targeting/audit strategies of the audit culture and other forms of EBPM, particularly in complex policy areas. This article accepts these criticisms and argues that in order to move beyond these problems one must not only look at the basic foundation of policy strategies, but also develop practical alternatives to those strategies. To that end, the article examines one of the most basic and common tools of the targeting/audit culture, the aggregate linear X-Y graph, and shows that when it has been applied to UK education policy, it leads to: (1) an extrapolation tendency; (2) a fluctuating ‘crisis–success' policy response process; and (3) an intensifying targeting/auditing trend. To move beyond these problems, one needs a visual metaphor which combines an ability to see the direction of policy travel with an aspect of continual openness that undermines the extrapolation tendency, crisis–success policy response and targeting/auditing trend. Using a general complexity approach, and building on the work of Geyer and Rihani, this article will attempt to show that a ‘complexity cascade’ tool can be used to overcome these weaknesses and avoid their negative effects in both education and health policy in the UK.

scholarly journals Big Data’s Other Privacy Problem

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Grimmelmann
Keyword(s):  
Policy Making ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
Privacy Problem

Chapter in:Big Data, Big Challenges for Evidence-Based Policy Making 211 (Kumar Jayasuria & Kathryn Ritcheske eds., West Academic 2015) (page proof PDF)

Revising Swiss Policies

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 494-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrin Frey ◽  
Thomas Widmer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Efficiency Analysis ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Do So

Evidence-based policy-making and other recent reforms in public steering emphasize the role systematic evidence can play in improving decision making and public policies. Increasing deficits heighten the pressure on public authorities to legitimate public spending and to find savings. Existing studies show that the influence of research-based information on decision making is shaped by several factors, but they typically do not distinguish between different types of information. Our contribution aims to compare the influence of efficiency analysis to information about performance effectiveness. We do so by looking at 10 cases in which public policies are being revised at the federal level in Switzerland, and do so by tracing the entire policy reform process. This qualitative analysis sheds light on which actors use efficiency information, how and under which conditions, and highlights the contribution of efficiency analysis for evidence-based policy-making.

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