flâneur

What Really Drives Policy?

vitalcitynyc.org · 2,367 words · saved by 1 readers

Why isn’t the strength of evidence supporting an idea the very first thing a policymaker looks at when deciding what direction to take? There are so many reasons, but here are a few. Knowledge is one: People making decisions often don’t know what the latest ideas, or even the most established ideas, from the academy are. Lights reduce crime, summer youth employment reduces mortality, for example. Timing is another: Policy moves fast, research moves slowly. Policy is often formed in the flash of a crisis: What do we do right now? How can we show that we are addressing a problem in the most visible and action-oriented way possible? Research tends to be about finding ideas that are road- (or at least lab-) tested for the long run, and the search for knowledge unspools at a different pace. Data and money, both hard to get, are other perennial obstacles to getting evidence to drive policy. And of course, the great beast of politics and ideology overshadows much decision-making where evidenc

Why isn’t the strength of evidence supporting an idea the very first thing a policymaker looks at when deciding what direction to take? There are so many reasons, but here are a few. Knowledge is one: People making decisions often don’t know what the latest ideas, or even the most established ideas, from the academy are. Lights reduce crime, summer youth employment reduces mortality, for example. Timing is another: Policy moves fast, research moves slowly. Policy is often formed in the flash of a crisis: What do we do right now? How can we show that we are addressing a problem in the most visi

related reading