Government Ministries and Evidence—Between the Political and the Rational

This book discusses how and why different ways of utilising evidence in government ministries affect policy success and failure. Chapter 1 focuses on the key roles that government ministries play in formulating and implementing policy and influencing the use of evidence in policy-making. The chapter first presents the research gaps and questions explored in the book. Then, arguments for why evidence-based policy remains an appealing ideal for political decision-makers are presented. It is then explained why hopes of evidence-based policy might be disappointed lending to moderators of evidence uptake in policy. Based on distinctions between selective and comprehensive evidence input and variation in formal policy decisions and informal policy management, a typology of evidence in policy is presented. The typology allows the book to define different types of evidence utilisation, which guide the focus of the following empirical chapters. The chapter concludes by considering the Danish context and methods applied to study the use and effects of evidence in government ministries based on three case studies focused on public budgeting policy, public school policy and active labour market policy.