ABSTRACT
The appeal to facts has become more and more of a trend in policymaking and the field of governance. In the last few decades more and more governments have been issuing policies and planning interventions with the support of what are said to be the best-established facts. As a consequence, a specific and pressing need has emerged to assess and evaluate facts for quality and robustness. The model of reference for this policy trend is scientific inquiry. To say that a result is acceptable in science is to say that it is supported by adequate evidence, namely, it is expected that it is justified by facts that are at the same time reliable and relevant.
How does this expectation transfer to the field of governance and policymaking? For example, the evidence-based policy and practice movement is driven by the idea that drawing on evidence (the best available facts provided by the best empirical research available) is the way to make good policy. Appropriate evidence both makes policy decisions optimal, legitimate and publicly accountable, and keeps bias at bay.
In this chapter, with the help of some case studies, I will address some of the pros and cons of this model, paying particular attention to the traits we ought to attribute to the concept of evidence if this is to be of some real use in practice.
