ABSTRACT
Where the information available to us is nothing if not sensitive, it is advisable to observe its characteristics, seeking to understand how the meanings it conveys are naturalized, how it is able to shape representations that strike us as consistent and what strategic games the actors can play to make it serve their ends.
The chapter turns to the theoretical aspects of the rocky road that links decision-making, public policy and policy justification in governance processes. Here, the central factors include the often ambiguous role played by the information underpinning decisions, and the reasons that may result in incomplete information. The information available for making decisions is put to strategic use by the many stakeholders involved, each pursuing a different goal: the multinational pharmaceutical companies seeking to maximize profits, the healthcare systems who are concerned with sustainability and striking a balance between treating illness and expenditure, the insurance sector which is intent on health marketing strategies and the patients who concentrate on improving their condition. But using the information required for decisions entails a number of ambiguities connected to the fact that the information rarely makes it possible to reach any sort of consensus about how priorities should be ordered.
