Mechanisms to Bridge the Gap Between Science and Politics in Evidence-Informed Policymaking: Mapping the Landscape

Abstract

AbstractDespite long-standing efforts to enhance evidence-informed decision-making in public health policy, tensions remain between the goal of basing decisions on the best available scientific evidence and the need to balance competing aims, interests, and evidentiary sources in representative democracies. In response, several strategies have been proposed both to democratize evidence production and evaluation, and to effectively integrate evidence into the decision-making processes of institutions of representative democracy. Drawing on a synthesis of the conceptual and empirical literature, this chapter describes and categorizes mechanisms that aim to reconcile political and scientific considerations in evidence-informed policymaking and develops an analytical typology that identifies salient dimensions of variation in their selection and design.