Evidence, Argument, and Persuasion in the Policy Process
ISBN 978-0300041590 | | |
In Evidence, Argument, and Persuasion in the Policy Process, published in 1989,[1] Italian political scientist Giandomenico Majone contrasts a vision of policy analysis as a technical, nonpartisan, and objective enterprise, with one more dependent upon the political environment in which it is formulated. Against a 'decisionist' view of information-for-decisions, Majone sets policy analysis as distinct from the academic social sciences on the one hand, and from problem-solving methodologies such as operations research on the other (p. 7).[2]
The tasks entrusted to an analyst - according to Majone - are to screen the evidence according to a plurality of viewpoints, elaborate arguments relative to the appropriateness of given policies, elaborate these arguments as a function of the intended audience, and finally present these argument convincingly. For this reason, beyond the necessary technical competence, the analyst should possess rhetorical and dialectical skills.[3]
This book contributes to the efforts to provide a more realistic portrayals of the strengths and limits of analysis, like Richard_R._Nelson’s The Moon and the Ghetto and Aaron Wildavsky’s Speaking Truth to Power: The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis.[2]
References
- ^ Giandomenico Majone, 1989, Evidence, Argument, and Persuasion in the Policy Process, Page on Google books: https://books.google.es/books?id=zDr8LPaah7wC&redir_esc=y
- ^ a b Peter J. May, Book reviews: Majone, Giandomenico, “Evidence, Argument, & Persuasion in the Policy Process”. Policy Science, 23, No. 2 (May, 1990), pp. 177-179.
- ^ Lachapelle, G. (1990). Evidence, Argument, and Persuasion in the Policy Process, Giandomenico Majone New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989, pp. xvi, 190. Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue Canadienne de Science Politique, 23(2), 408–409. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423900012646.