Policy-Learning in Evidence-Based Policy Making

The importance of evidence has substantially increased in the decision-making process of contemporary democracies. As a consequence, many scholars have shifted their attention to the analysis how scientific data can contribute to improving public policies. However, only few studies have investigated members of parliament as users of evidence, and therefore, as learners about public policy. Focusing on policy evaluations as one type of scientific evidence, this paper examines the use of such evidence in parliamentary policymaking and how parliamentarians use evaluations in order to learn on public policies. Based on theories of the policy process, we distinguish two types of policy learning. On the one hand, policy-oriented learning, which denotes the use of evidence to learn about how to improve policies to alleviate public problems. On the other, we focus on power-oriented learning, which indicates the use of evidence to change policies for political goals. We argue that albeit individual characteristics are important for evidence-based policy-making, policy characteristics such as policy salience play a crucial role for the utilization of evidence in the parliamentary arena. Notably, parliamentarians tend use evidence for political goals, if an issue is more salient politically. Our research design focuses on the case of the Federal Assembly in Switzerland, which we analyze using multi-level models that are based on data gathered from a survey about evaluation use among the members of parliaments. The results show that we need for a more differentiated understanding of parliamentarians as users of evidence. Our analysis reveals that evaluation use occurs less frequently in salient policy domains, which indicates a less policy-oriented but rather a more politicized and power-oriented form of learning.