Page 382 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 1

IPS169 Gaby U.
‘represents both an important set of professional practices and aspirations; and
also a political rhetoric seeking to legitimate forms of decision-making’ (Head
2010). The more recent concept of ‘evidence-informed policy-making’ (EIPM)
seeks to be more flexible (Martinuzzi and Scholl 2016) and cautious about the
impact of evidence on policy-making (emphasising the input side of the
political process and indicating at the fact that evidence has been injected into
it). The earlier concept of EBPM embraces a more throughput- or output-
oriented perspective (assuming that the evidence injected into the policy
process influences policy-making, both procedurally and in view of the policy
content adopted). With these nuances, EIPM (Chalmers 2005) pays tribute to
the fact ‘that policy making is an inherently political process ..., involving
ideology, vested interests, institutional norms and path dependencies...’
(Bannister & O’Sullivan 2014; see Head 2015) as an alternative basis for
decision-making.
EBPM entails structural and procedural shifts in policy delivery and
outcomes within knowledge conversion processes (Castellani et al. 2016). It
embraces evidence and expertise as building blocks of policy design and
highlights the efficacy of particular types of evidence. EBPM treats evidence
and (statistical) knowledge as a (political) resource and highlights the
relevance of knowledge management and communication. The (data) science-
policy interface and the relationship between evidence, knowledge and power
are essential aspects of EBPM that also impact on the role of statistics on
(political actors’ strategies in) policy-making.
Evidence informing EBPM can include scientific and research evidence,
statistical and survey data, results of impact assessments and policy evaluation
or ‘contextual knowledge from previous experiences’ (Castellani et al. 2016). As
one of its most robust types, and going beyond their purely metrological
purpose of quantification and measurement, statistics have become one of the
most important forms of evidence in such EBPM in the 21 century. Used to
st
provide the factual basis for evidence-informed policy development, statistics
serve multiple purposes: they measure and compare; increase insight and
knowledge; inform monitoring of progress; support evaluation and
assessment; and constitute independent sources of information that open
government decision-making to wider scrutiny. Within EBPM, statistics hence
take over different functions. They can
• support strategic planning in multilevel political structures;
• define common goals for progress and development;
• enhance multi-dimensional performance assessment;
• increase transparency of decision-making processes and policy
instruments;
• inspire innovation;

371 | I S I W S C 2 0 1 9