Of numbers, narratives and challenges: Data as evidence in 21st century policy-making

Abstract

This article1 offers reflections on the use of data as evidence in 21st century policy-making. It discusses the concept of evidence-informed policy-making (EIPM) as well as the governance and knowledge effects of data as evidence. With this focus, it interlinks the analysis of statistics and politics. The paper first introduces the concept of EIPM and the impact of evidence use. Here it focusses on science and knowledge as resources in policy-making, on the institutionalisation of science advice and on the translation of information and knowledge into evidence. The second part of the article reflects on data as evidence. This part concentrates on abstract and concrete functions of data as governance tools in policy-making, on data as a robust form of evidence and on the effects of data on knowledge and governance. The third part highlights challenges for data as evidence in policy-making, among them, politicisation, transparency, and diversity as well as objectivity and contestation. Finally, the last part draws conclusions on the production and use of data as evidence in EIPM. Throughout the second part of the reflections, reference is made to Walter Radermacher’s 2019 matrix of actors and activities related to data, facts, and policy published in this journal.

Statistical and data literacy in policy-making

“…Therefore, special attention is required to the fact that statistics and data have become a target of instrumentalisation and politicisation which can endanger democratic decisionmaking. As analysed previously in this journal [9], Greece, Tanzania, and the World Banks' Doing Business indicators are negative examples and cases in point here. Within this special stream, Radermacher offers an in-depth insight into such governance effects and into the desideratum of an overall data culture to emerge, while Sabbati shows how these effects can be mitigated within statistics-based knowledge products to inform policy-making and decision-makers.…”

“…As outlined above and in a previous contribution to this journal [9], the use of statistics and data in policymaking is an essential means of doing politics and an indispensable ingredient of evidence-informed policy. It is a political instrument that can support the emergence and/or preservation of power.…”

“…This overall awareness needs to be coupled with the insight that statistics and data can define what they are meant to describe instead of 'only' measuring a certain reality ('understanding data') and that oversimplification and difficulties to develop common understandings of complex social phenomena impact data collection and selection. These issues demand interlinkages between and responsiveness of statistics' production and the policy context, which data shall inform [9,20]. Actors engaged in policy-making need to acquire the skills and capacity to work critically with these new forms of knowledge.…”

“…The former do so to support evidenceinformed policy-making, the latter to define and defend policy priorities. Through these systemic interlinkages, the use of statistics and data becomes open to multiple, strategic and value-based considerations that support, defend and/or contest quantification choices as much as political interests [9]. Accompanying these developments, the landscape of data sources and the ways of using statistics and data in policy-making have grown significantly and become easily confusing for any non-data scientist engaged in public policy.…”

Table1.DOCX

“…Of course, the statement cannot be taken as an absolute truth. The increasing reliance on quantification in policy can also lead to unintended misuse or even politicization of data with negative consequences (Radermacher 2019;Umbach 2020). Nonetheless, it is generally agreed that it is relevant to have a clear and scientifically sound information base around which decisions can be made.…”