{"id":1589,"date":"2013-02-18T11:57:12","date_gmt":"2013-02-18T16:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/articles\/\/"},"modified":"2024-01-25T10:24:36","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T15:24:36","slug":"the-density-model-an-alternative-to-trying-to-control-the-uncontrollable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/articles\/the-density-model-an-alternative-to-trying-to-control-the-uncontrollable\/","title":{"rendered":"The density model: an alternative to trying to control the uncontrollable"},"content":{"rendered":"
I have been thinking about the idea of\u00a0density as a way of explaining why some policies seem to be more informed by evidence than others<\/a>. I wrote about it\u00a0back in 2011<\/a>:<\/p>\n According to Mirko Lauer, a Peruvian journalist, the key factor that explains why some policy issues are more likely to be informed by research based knowledge than others is the\u00a0density<\/em>\u00a0of information about those issues. At an event for aTrade and Poverty in Latin America\u00a0programme in Lima in 2009, he gave the example of economic policymakers in Peru who, as well as the general public, are exposed to a myriad of publications that provide an effective vehicle for research, analysis and opinions on almost all economic policy issues: all the mayor national broadsheets have a daily economics section, there are at least two national specialised monthly magazines, a number of weekly magazines and newsletters, The Economist, Business Week and the Financial Times are readily available, and there are many more email or web-based information services. Furthermore, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Central Bank, and the National Statistics Office have their own internal research teams, databases and publications.<\/p>\n Hence, Lauer argued, all economic decisions, even if they turn out to be mistakes (which would undoubtedly be picked up by specialised journalists and researchers and fed back though the mentioned channels), are necessarily informed on\u00a0some<\/em>\u00a0evidence. This is clearly not the situation for other policy issues such as those related to indigenous groups, the environment, reproductive health, security, etc. where research and general information and arguments about them is sporadically gathered and communicated, and subject to the \u2018what bleeds leads\u2019 mantra of newspapers and public opinion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The ‘theory’ goes something like this:<\/p>\n In this theory, let’s call it the Density<\/em>\u00a0Theory, decisions take place within political spaces, which exist around specific policy processes but are connected to all others. These spaces involve different actors and belong to a broader political system. In each space there is, depending on factors like the sector and issue or the actors involved and interested, a certain amount of information communicated through different means to all those directly or indirectly involved in the policy decision. For two spaces of similar\u00a0size<\/em>\u00a0(number of issues or actors, length of the process, populations affected, etc.) the one with more availability of information will have higher density than the other. In other words, where there is plenty of information available about a particular policy issue through a number of competing and complementary media (including think tanks, newspapers, NGOs, government bodies, etc.) there is high density; whereas where little information is available or where there are few or not readily available sources of information there is low density.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In the post I added a political interest dimension to the analysis but I’ll leave it out from this blog post (if you are curious:\u00a0Never mind the gap: on how there is no gap between research and policy and on a new theory<\/a>).<\/p>\n The purpose of increasing density (of good quality information and knowledge) is to maximise the chances that decisions will be more and better informed.<\/p>\n This is also the purpose of most ‘research to policy’ interventions; so how can the idea of density help them? Here is how (although I must warn you: implementing this will be a challenge):<\/p>\n The Density Model<\/strong><\/p>\n First we must remember that this model is focused on a policy issue and\/or policy space and aims to make decisions better informed (it does not aim to influence policy directly).<\/p>\n Secondly, the model, at least as I choose to present it, attempts to stay away from large and single complex interventions, avoids the fantasy that it is possible to engineer the ‘right’ policymaking process or control how research is used, and attempts, at all costs, to lift all (or as many as is possible) boats at the same time. Explicitly political players and the government (often led by a particular party or group) are, in this version, excluded from direct interventions; but they will certainly benefit indirectly.<\/p>\n To promote density I have identified 9 intervention opportunities (but only suggest that we consider 7 of them, at this stage):<\/p>\n Now, this looks like an impossible task. It certainly cannot be done by a single organisation and it probably shouldn’t. The model assumes that a private-public partnership as well as plenty of collaboration will be necessary. But even then a leader will be needed. Who the leader is will depend on the country and policy issue in question: it could be the private sector (a business association), a professional body, a think tank or a group of researchers, NGOs, a government body, or even a donor or a group of donors.<\/p>\n This collaboration is necessary because the model demands a long term commitment (10 to 20 years) and a willingness to let go and let the system develop that may only be possible if not one single actor ‘owns’ the initiative. Funding too, needs to be shared and it should come from:<\/p>\n Additionally, the model should consider the following implementation advice:<\/p>\n A sample\u00a0intervention<\/strong>\u00a0on forestry and reforestation (to pick a topic) could look like this:<\/p>\n So there you go. Simple? Well, not really but although the entire effort is quite complex each intervention should be rather straight forward. It will demand lots of preparation, networking, and monitoring.<\/p>\n In the meantime it would be good if any interventions considered this model and at least asked what is going on in each policy space that is likely to increase its density. Simply assuming that policies will be better informed because there is more research is mistaken. Nothing can guarantee that ‘this or that’ research will inform policy. But in a context where these is plenty of research and analysis to go around it is quite likely that some research will inform policy. And that is what we want; right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have been thinking about the idea of\u00a0density as a way of explaining why some policies seem to be more informed by evidence than others. I wrote about it\u00a0back in 2011: According to Mirko Lauer, a Peruvian journalist, the key factor that explains why some policy issues are more likely to be informed by research […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[432,403,230,204,456,457,455],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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