IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/policy/v51y2018i4d10.1007_s11077-018-9334-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Policy-making and truthiness: Can existing policy models cope with politicized evidence and willful ignorance in a “post-fact” world?

Author

Listed:
  • Anthony Perl

    (Simon Fraser University)

  • Michael Howlett

    (Simon Fraser University)

  • M. Ramesh

    (National University of Singapore)

Abstract

From “alternative facts” to “fake news,” in recent years the influence of misinformation on political life has become amplified in unprecedented ways through electronic communications and social media. While misinformation and spin are age-old tactics in policy making, and poor information and poorly informed opinion a constant challenge for policy analysts, both the volume of erroneous evidence and the difficulties encountered in differentiating subjectively constructed opinion from objectively verified policy inputs have increased significantly. The resulting amalgamation of unsubstantiated and verifiable data and well and poorly informed opinion raises many questions for a policy science which emerged in an earlier, less problematic era. This article examines these developments and their provenance and asks whether, and how, existing policy making models and practices developed and advocated during an earlier era of a sharper duality between fact and fiction have grappled with the new world of “truthiness,” and whether these models require serious revision in light of the impact of social media and other forces affecting contemporary policy discourses and processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony Perl & Michael Howlett & M. Ramesh, 2018. "Policy-making and truthiness: Can existing policy models cope with politicized evidence and willful ignorance in a “post-fact” world?," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 51(4), pages 581-600, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:policy:v:51:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s11077-018-9334-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11077-018-9334-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11077-018-9334-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11077-018-9334-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schneider, Anne & Ingram, Helen, 1993. "Social Construction of Target Populations: Implications for Politics and Policy," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 87(2), pages 334-347, June.
    2. Charles F. Manski, 2013. "Response to the Review of ‘Public Policy in an Uncertain World’," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0, pages 412-415, August.
    3. Richard Hula & Cynthia Jackson‐Elmoore & Laura Reese, 2007. "Mixing God's Work and the Public Business: A Framework for the Analysis of Faith‐Based Service Delivery," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 24(1), pages 67-89, January.
    4. Simon, Herbert A, 1978. "Rationality as Process and as Product of Thought," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(2), pages 1-16, May.
    5. Susan Morgan, 2018. "Fake news, disinformation, manipulation and online tactics to undermine democracy," Journal of Cyber Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 39-43, January.
    6. repec:nas:journl:v:115:y:2018:p:9216-9221 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Manski, Charles F., 2013. "Public Policy in an Uncertain World: Analysis and Decisions," Economics Books, Harvard University Press, number 9780674066892, Spring.
    8. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Brown, Marilyn A., 2015. "Deconstructing facts and frames in energy research: Maxims for evaluating contentious problems," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 36-42.
    9. Jean-Pierre Warnier, 2013. "On Agnotology as Built-in Ignorance," Africa Spectrum, Institute of African Affairs, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 48(1), pages 113-116.
    10. Clare Chua Chow & Rakesh Sarin, 2002. "Known, Unknown, and Unknowable Uncertainties," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 127-138, March.
    11. Moshe Maor, 2014. "Policy persistence, risk estimation and policy underreaction," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 47(4), pages 425-443, December.
    12. William N. Dunn, 1988. "Methods Of The Second Type: Coping With The Wilderness Of Conventional Policy Analysis," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 7(4), pages 720-737, June.
    13. Motta, Matthew & Callaghan, Timothy & Sylvester, Steven, 2018. "Knowing less but presuming more: Dunning-Kruger effects and the endorsement of anti-vaccine policy attitudes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 274-281.
    14. Stevens, T.M. & Aarts, N. & Termeer, C.J.A.M. & Dewulf, A., 2018. "Social media hypes about agro-food issues: Activism, scandals and conflicts," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 23-34.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Adam FFORDE, 2020. "Towards a theory of ignorance," The Journal of Philosophical Economics, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, The Journal of Philosophical Economics, vol. 13(2), pages 137-161, November.
    2. Anna P. Durnová & Eva M. Hejzlarová, 2023. "Navigating the role of emotions in expertise: public framing of expertise in the Czech public controversy on birth care," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 56(3), pages 549-571, September.
    3. Katharina T. Paul & Christian Haddad, 2019. "Beyond evidence versus truthiness: toward a symmetrical approach to knowledge and ignorance in policy studies," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 52(2), pages 299-314, June.
    4. Fernando Hoces de la Guardia & Sean Grant & Edward Miguel, 2021. "A framework for open policy analysis," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 48(2), pages 154-163.
    5. Steffen Eckhard & Vytautas Jankauskas, 2020. "Explaining the political use of evaluation in international organizations," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 53(4), pages 667-695, December.
    6. Marc Debus & Jale Tosun, 2021. "Political ideology and vaccination willingness: implications for policy design," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 54(3), pages 477-491, September.
    7. Hal T. Nelson, 2023. "America's Energy Gamble, by Shanti Gamper‐Rabindran, New York, NY (2022): Cambridge University Press, 529 pages, $29.99 (paperback)," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(2), pages 600-603, March.
    8. Grant D. Jacobsen, 2019. "How do different sources of policy analysis affect policy preferences? Experimental evidence from the United States," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 52(3), pages 315-342, September.
    9. Bates Nancy & Steinmetz Stephanie & Fischer Mirjam, 2019. "Preface," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 35(4), pages 699-707, December.
    10. John W. Straka & Brenda C. Straka, 2020. "Reframe policymaking dysfunction through bipartisan-inclusion leadership," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 53(4), pages 779-802, December.
    11. Giliberto Capano & Michael Howlett & Leslie A Pal & M Ramesh, 2023. "Dealing with the challenges of legitimacy, values, and politics in policy advice," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 42(3), pages 275-287.
    12. Ric Neo, 2021. "The International Discourses and Governance of Fake News," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(2), pages 214-228, April.
    13. Pirmin Bundi & Philipp Trein, 2022. "Evaluation use and learning in public policy," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 55(2), pages 283-309, June.
    14. Adam Fforde, 2019. "Yes, but what about the authority of policy analysts? A commentary and discussion of Perl et al., ‘Policy-making and truthiness: Can existing models cope with politicized evidence and willful ignoranc," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 52(1), pages 153-169, March.
    15. Kris Hartley & Minh Khuong Vu, 2020. "Fighting fake news in the COVID-19 era: policy insights from an equilibrium model," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 53(4), pages 735-758, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alberto Abadie & Susan Athey & Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2020. "Sampling‐Based versus Design‐Based Uncertainty in Regression Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(1), pages 265-296, January.
    2. Charles F. Manski & John V. Pepper, 2018. "How Do Right-to-Carry Laws Affect Crime Rates? Coping with Ambiguity Using Bounded-Variation Assumptions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(2), pages 232-244, May.
    3. Muller, Seán M., 2021. "The dangers of performative scientism as the alternative to anti-scientific policymaking: A critical, preliminary assessment of South Africa’s Covid-19 response and its consequences," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    4. Millimet, Daniel L. & Roy, Jayjit, 2015. "Multilateral environmental agreements and the WTO," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 20-23.
    5. Huhr, Scott & Wulczyn, Fred, 2022. "Do intensive in-home services prevent placement?: A case study of Youth Villages’ Intercept® program," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    6. ILes, Richard, 2017. "Government Doctor Absenteeism And Its Effects On Consumer Demand In Rural North India," Working Papers 2018-9, School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University, revised 12 2018.
    7. Susan Athey & Raj Chetty & Guido Imbens, 2020. "Combining Experimental and Observational Data to Estimate Treatment Effects on Long Term Outcomes," Papers 2006.09676, arXiv.org.
    8. Charles F. Manski, 2020. "Towards Reasonable Patient Care Under Uncertainty," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(2), pages 227-245, April.
    9. Raffaella Giacomini & Toru Kitagawa, 2021. "Robust Bayesian Inference for Set‐Identified Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(4), pages 1519-1556, July.
    10. Charles F. Manski, 2018. "Reasonable patient care under uncertainty," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(10), pages 1397-1421, October.
    11. Reiner Eichenberger & Rainer Hegselmann & David Savage & David Stadelmann & Benno Torgler, 2020. "Certified Corona-Immunity as a Resource and Strategy to Cope with Pandemic Costs," CREMA Working Paper Series 2020-03, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    12. Ho Fai Chan & Nikita Ferguson & David A. Savage & David Stadelmann & Benno Torgler, 2020. "Is Science Able to Perform Under Pressure? Insights from COVID-19," CREMA Working Paper Series 2020-07, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    13. Wolfgang Frimmel & Martin Halla & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2016. "How Does Parental Divorce Affect Children's Long-term Outcomes?," Working Papers 2016-13, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    14. Eric Danan & Thibault Gajdos & Brian Hill & Jean-Marc Tallon, 2016. "Robust Social Decisions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(9), pages 2407-2425, September.
    15. Fernando Hoces de la Guardia & Sean Grant & Edward Miguel, 2021. "A framework for open policy analysis," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 48(2), pages 154-163.
    16. Guido W. Imbens, 2020. "Potential Outcome and Directed Acyclic Graph Approaches to Causality: Relevance for Empirical Practice in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(4), pages 1129-1179, December.
    17. Aizawa, T.;, 2019. "Reviewing the Existing Evidence of the Conditional Cash Transfer in India through the Partial Identification Approach," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 19/24, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    18. Xiaoyu Cheng, 2022. "Robust Data-Driven Decisions Under Model Uncertainty," Papers 2205.04573, arXiv.org.
    19. Kaushik Basu, 2014. "Randomisation, Causality and the Role of Reasoned Intuition," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(4), pages 455-472, December.
    20. Binswanger, Johannes & Oechslin, Manuel, 2020. "Better statistics, better economic policies?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:policy:v:51:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s11077-018-9334-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.