Policy thinking: from ‘if ... then’ to ‘what if ...’

Abstract

Now, more than ever before, good advice is held to be a function of its knowledge base. Advisers seek connections between information, knowledge, policy and outcomes. Given issue complexity, multiple values and competing sources of information, lively debate focuses on various qualities of knowledge, and its production, management and relevance. Some policy advisers and decision makers equate ‘good’ knowledge with expert and scientific ‘evidence’. Others proclaim the worth of local and ‘interpretive’ knowledge, which arises from consultation, dialogue and mutual learning processes. Unfortunately, debate centred on the qualities of knowledge tacitly assumes that good qualities automatically increase the odds of good policy.