Measuring the Quality of Law Drafting: Did COVID-19 Weaken Evidence-Based Policy Making in Finland?

Abstract

Abstract This study examined evidence-based law drafting during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A total of 311 Finnish government bills from 2020 and 2021 were analysed to detect how urgency and uncertainty caused by the pandemic have been reflected in evidence base utilization in law drafting. The government bills were divided into two groups, COVID-related and non-COVID bills. The difference between the groups was analysed by regression analysis, in which non-COVID bills served as the baseline indicating the level of ‘normal law drafting’. According to the results, there was a statistically significant difference between the groups, which indicates that urgency and uncertainty were associated with less evidence utilization. However, the evidence base utilization was also at an insufficient level in ‘normal law drafting’. Hence, the first step to improve the quality of law drafting in crises situations is to ensure that the main principles of evidence-based decision making are observed in every-day law drafting processes.