HECOL300 Lecture 15: Policy Decision Making

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Human Ecology
• Course: HECOL300
• Professor: Janet Fast

Document Summary

What role does evidence play in decision making. When is evidence needed in the policy process. Monitoring to detect new problems/chprospectiveanges in existing problems. How it"s working (or not), why or at what cost. Perceived need to enhance the quality of policy decision making = rising interest. Greater emphasis on accountability seems to suggest need for greater/reliance on evidence. Complexity of policy problems & research limitations = lack of clarity of answers. Lack of interest among decision makers (reliance on ideology) Hard to show causality (especially in social science) Analysis: scienti c research aimed at designing, implementing and evaluating existing policies programs and other courses of government action.