Evidence‐based policy: Some pitfalls in the meeting of scientific research politics (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

A current ambition in welfare states as diverse as Denmark, the UK, and the USA, is to base political decision‐making on rigorous research. Sound as this might seem the ambition has nevertheless been problematized by both policy‐makers and the research community. This article intends to draw out some general pitfalls in the curious meeting of science and politics by focusing on one particular attempt to make evidence‐based legislation in. These insights will be relevant for anthropological researchers of legislative processes who wish to move beyond a merely discursive approach to the study of policy and politics.