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Beyond Ideology, Politics, and Guesswork: The Case for Evidence-Based Policy (revised 2008) |
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From Urban Institute: U.S. public policy has increasingly been conceived, debated, and evaluated through the lenses of politics and ideology. A remedy is evidence-based policy---a rigourous approach that draws on careful data collection, experimentation, and both quantitative and qualitative analysis to determine what the problem is, which ways it can be addressed, and the probable impacts of each of these ways. Examples of how evidence informs good policy and lack of evidence can invite bad include health insurance coverage, education, sentencing policy, and redress for housing discrimination. Public policy in the United States in recent years has increasingly been conceived, debated, and evaluated through the lenses of politics and ideology---policies are Democratic or Republican, liberal or conservative, free market or government controlled. The fundamental question---Will the policy work?---too often gets short shrift or ignored altogether. In contrast, in the United Kingdom and some other democracies facing challenges similar to ours, "evidence-based policy" is gaining momentum. Evidence can be ambiguous or even contradictory, and it can be complex or difficult to interpret. Also, the path from research to sound policy can be long and winding. Policy positions based on ideology or political considerations tend to agitate the fragile body politic and alienate a significant fraction of Americans---think of affirmative action or education vouchers.
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