Work

Variation in evidence use across policy sectors: the case of Brazil

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Evidence use across policy sectors is widely believed to vary as each sector espouses a specific and dominant pattern in how it sources evidence. This view privileges the idea that a “culture of evidence” serves as a norm that guides behavior in the entire sector. In this article, we seek to nuance the policy sectoral approach to understanding evidence use by analyzing the results of a large-N survey of federal employees in Brazil (n = 2,177). Our findings show a diverse set of cultures of evidence with a few sectors like Science and Technology demonstrating a strong likelihood for using scientific evidence with most sectors showing a mixed pattern of sourcing evidence. However, a majority of the surveyed civil servants show an “indistinct” pattern of evidence use who are likely to not use any sources of evidence.

Source: Policy and Society

DOI: 10.1093/polsoc/puae031

Authors: Kidjie Saguin, João V Guedes-Neto, Pedro Lucas Moura Palotti, Natália Massaco Koga, Flavio Lyrio Carneiro

Institutions: The University of Melbourne, Escola Brasileira de Administração Pública e de Empresas, Fundação Getulio Vargas, Institute of Applied Economic Research, Escola Nacional de Administração Pública

Language: English

Topic: Evaluation and Performance Assessment

Subfield: Management Science and Operations Research

Field: Decision Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,683