Thanks! I’m sure Germany and Sweden aren’t that different in this regard.
There are of course many expert groups inside and outside government working on what in a broad sense could be called “evidence-based policy” in most countries (whether or not that very term is used). Most of these groups have the problem that you mention—they have good advice, but the politicians don’t listen to them. That’s why we don’t want to be another group of that kind, but also a campaigning organization. We want to push the message of political rationality fairly aggressively in the media and on social media (though you have to be careful not to trigger the “Straw Soviet”). That way, we’ll try to force politicians’ to listen to ours and other expert organizations’ advice.
I don’t know if there is any similar organization in Germany, though I think there should be.
You’re absolutely right about getting civil servants onboard. A few has joined since we wrote the article, and we are working on recruiting more. We lack a bit of practical know-how now, since most of us are academics or students, but I’m confident we will be able to get more people onboard.
Yes, younger politicians are probably more interested in this than older, for several reasons. We are not affiliated with any party, but are independent. We do talk to the parties, though—and the Pirate Party is among them.
I’ll talk about this on Saturday in Berlin, by the way, at the LW meeting. Will you be there?
Thanks! I’m sure Germany and Sweden aren’t that different in this regard.
There are of course many expert groups inside and outside government working on what in a broad sense could be called “evidence-based policy” in most countries (whether or not that very term is used). Most of these groups have the problem that you mention—they have good advice, but the politicians don’t listen to them. That’s why we don’t want to be another group of that kind, but also a campaigning organization. We want to push the message of political rationality fairly aggressively in the media and on social media (though you have to be careful not to trigger the “Straw Soviet”). That way, we’ll try to force politicians’ to listen to ours and other expert organizations’ advice.
I don’t know if there is any similar organization in Germany, though I think there should be.
You’re absolutely right about getting civil servants onboard. A few has joined since we wrote the article, and we are working on recruiting more. We lack a bit of practical know-how now, since most of us are academics or students, but I’m confident we will be able to get more people onboard.
Yes, younger politicians are probably more interested in this than older, for several reasons. We are not affiliated with any party, but are independent. We do talk to the parties, though—and the Pirate Party is among them.
I’ll talk about this on Saturday in Berlin, by the way, at the LW meeting. Will you be there?
Yup. See you there.
Check out http://europa.eu/epic/topics/evidence-based-practices_en.htm—it’s EU, not country specific, but it’s heading in that direction.