In the Light of Epistemological Debates about Knowledge, is ‘Evidence-Based’ Policy Making (in the Britain) Anything More than Political Rhetoric?

Abstract

Recently, the policy discourse in Britain has shifted towards evidence-based policy (EBP) where ‘evidence’ is founded on rationality of natural science. In one hand, the proponents of EPB advocate for scientific approaches (e.g. experimentation, systematic review) in generating evidence in social science in order to modernising the policy making process. On the other hand, question arises whether such technical/instrumental approach in social science can really construct appropriate knowledge in order to improve government’s policy making endeavour. Critical analysis of the scientific research approaches in generating evidence (knowledge) in social science reveals that the present government’s ‘what works’ philosophy is a major fallacy of their effort to bridge the gap between policy process and social research because there are some inherent methodological and epistemological issues that the evidence-based research faces in the way of understanding the social world. Basically, the critics of EBP warn that the concept of ‘what works’ evidence is myopic, because it defines ‘evidence’ scientifically and mechanically that is too narrow from social science’s perspective.

Keywords: evidence based policy, scientific research, policy research