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 withoutappeal 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 transparentreflection. In other words, value commitments are not just important at the point of spelling out specific policy details and choos-ing between policy options but they are absolutely essential right from the very beginning of the policy-making process: all theway from deciding which problem should be addressed by policy or regulation to determining which evidence to use and whereto look for it. Second, in order to determine when we have enough evidence, we need to take into account relevant value-basedconsiderations