Why We Cannot Separate Evidence From Values in Public Policy
ABSTRACT Whether or not any particular policy is adequate by EBP's own standard—being evidence‐based—cannot be decided without appeal to value‐based considerations. We support this claim in two steps. First, we argue that which evidence gets used in policy‐making depends on our value commitments, which are rarely made explicit, let alone being the subject of critical and transparent reflection. In other words, value commitments are not just important at the point of spelling out specific policy details and choosing between policy options but they are absolutely essential right from the very beginning of the policy‐making process: all the way from deciding which problem should be addressed by policy or regulation to determining which evidence to use and where to look for it. Second, in order to determine when we have enough evidence, we need to take into account relevant value‐based considerations.
Authors
- Hannah Rubin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0270-9182)
- Chad L. Hewitt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6859-6512)
- Katie Woolaston (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7652-9347)
- Remco Heesen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3823-944X)
- Anne Schwenkenbecher (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2207-3043)
- Evangelina Schwindt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6693-9828)
- Veli Mitova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4181-8170)
- Mike D. Schneider (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3303-3664)
- Temitope O. Sogbanmu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8913-267X)
- Ricardo Kaufer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7641-2456)
- Hanna Metzen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9116-3750)
- Helena Slanickova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5557-9654)
- Alejandro Bortolus
- Li‐an Yu
- Emelda E. Chukwu
Institutions
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (AR)
- University of Groningen (NL)
- Murdoch University (AU)
- Lincoln University (NZ)
- University of Konstanz (DE)
- University of Lagos (NG)
- University of Johannesburg (ZA)
- Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica (TW)
- ARL – Academy for Territorial Development in the Leibniz Association (DE)
- Centro Científico Tecnológico Patagónico (AR)
- Instituto de Biología Subtropical (AR)
- Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NG)
- University of Missouri (US)
- London School of Economics and Political Science (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Politics & Policy
- Published
- 2026-03-08
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.70109
- Primary Topic
- Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Volkswagen Foundation
- Murdoch University
- Universität Bielefeld
- Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung, Universität Bielefeld