Evidence and Policy‐Making: An Organizational Approach

ABSTRACT Strengthening the role of evidence in policy‐making is increasingly seen as crucial for the quality and legitimacy of public policies. Both among practitioners and scholars, there is a growing awareness that evidence‐informed policy‐making not only depends on the rigor and relevance of the research, science communication or features of policy‐makers. It also depends on how expertise arrangements in public organizations are organized . Yet, we currently lack a solid understanding of how organization matters for the role of evidence in policy‐making. The article presents an organizational‐theoretical perspective on how the formal organization of public bureaucracies shapes evidence use in policy‐making, with important implications for both analysis and design of expertise arrangements in public administration. The article thereby sets a new research agenda at the intersection of organizational theory and scholarship on evidence and policy‐making, which speaks directly to public administration practice.