Evidence-based policy: exploring international and interdisciplinary insights

Abstract

The relationship between international evidence, politics and policy is never straightforward. Politicians sometimes cite comparative findings from social science evidence collected and analysed by international organisations to support policy proposals without sufficient understanding of contextual factors. The media may exploit data from such studies to highlight national policy successes and failures. Academic literature on evidence-based policy is often more interested in identifying policies that work than in investigating the reasons why policy solutions might, or might not, be effective if transferred to other regions. This article explores some of the issues involved by examining the relationship between evidence producers and users in different institutional settings, drawing on case studies in health and social policy to illuminate the complexities of the policy process. In considering possible conditions for successful policy learning across time and space, the authors stress the critical need to take account of socioeconomic, political, cultural and disciplinary contexts.

Keywords:

• evidence-based policy
• international and interdisciplinary insights
• evidence brokerage
• policy learning
• policy environments

Notes on contributors

Linda Hantrais, FAcSS, is Emeritus Professor of European Social Policy at Loughborough University, UK, and a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics, Centre for International Studies. Her research interests span international comparative research theory, methodology, management and practice, with particular reference to public policy and institutional structures in the European Union, and the relationship between socio-demographic trends and social policy. She has coordinated several European research projects, and was a consultant for an ESRC-funded Researcher Development Initiative in International Social Research Methods (2010–2012). Her publications include International comparative research: Theory, methods and practice (Palgrave, 2009).

Ashley Thomas Lenihan is a Fellow at the Centre for International Studies at the London School of Economics, and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Law, Science, & Global Security at Georgetown University. She received her BSFS and PhD. in Government from Georgetown University. Her research focuses on the political economy of international security, international law, and the relationship between social science research and the policy-making process. Recent publications include ‘Sovereign wealth funds and the acquisition of power’ (New Political Economy, 2014), and Lessons from abroad: International approaches to promoting evidence-based social policy (Alliance for Useful Evidence, 2013).

Susanne MacGregor, FAcSS, is a Professor of Social Policy at LSHTM, and Emeritus Professor at Middlesex University. She has been a Scientific Adviser to the UK Department of Health and was Programme Coordinator for their Drug Misuse Research Initiative from 2000 to 2008. She is a member of a United Nations Research Institute for Social Development research collaboration: Towards universal social security in emerging economies (UNRISD, 2012–2015). She was a Guest Editor of a Special Edition of the International Journal of Drug Policy: Towards good governance in drug policy: Evidence, stakeholders and politics (Vol. 25, 2014).