Prospects for evidence-based policy in Russia: The public administrators’ points of view

Abstract

Evidence-based policy is aimed at overcoming subjectivity when making government decisions by means of expertise, using analytical materials at all stages of decision-making and executing processes, and involving internal and external experts. The main objectives of this research are to determine the opportunities and limitations of using evidence-based politics as an approach to making and promoting government decisions in Russia, to identify the attitude of decision makers to evidence-based policy tools and their application in Russian realities, and to obtain expert assessment of the state of evidence-based policy in the Russian public space. To implement these objectives, semi-standardized interviews with a target sample of 37 respondents were conducted. The sample consisted of public administrators and experts from academic and scientific communities. This article reflects the results of interviewing of public administrators: their answers more clearly revealed the possibilities and limitations of using evidence-based policy tools in Russia. The analysis of government officials’ responses showed that, despite the public authorities’ demand for and interest in analytical data and analytical support, the dissemination of evidence-based politics in Russia had a number of limitations. The main obstacles are the low level of trust of public administrators in analytical materials and their authors, low quality rating of analytical services, lack of platforms for regular interaction between government officials and the expert community, and a focus on compliance with formal rather than substantive requirements while working with analytics providers. To overcome the obstacles in the interaction between experts and public administrators in making government decisions it is necessary to expand the practice of using expert support in making decisions and to increase their willingness to adjust to the requirements of government officials as the customers of analytical materials.