PRESENTED BY: Jeremy Rayner, JSGS Professor and CSIP Director
In policy schools, policy analysis has traditionally been taught as a largely technical exercise that consists of devising and comparing options to address a given problem. The analyst must always be prepared for the technically optimal solution to be rejected for political reasons, but her role is clear: to speak truth to power. Recently, however, policy analysis has been forced to confront an increasingly polarized political context, in which alternative facts, fake news and willful ignorance have flourished, threatening to undermine the distinction between subjective opinions and verifiably objective facts on which technical policy analysis depends. I will assess a number of responses to the challenge of policy advice in the age of “truthiness” and argue that this phenomenon is neither new nor especially destructive. However, it does indicate that the teaching of policy analysis should pay more attention to the context in which advice is given and the recent revival of the idea of policy advisory systems suggests how this could be done.
Event Details
- When:
- Time:
- 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM CST
- Location:
- Canada Room, Diefenbaker Building, 101 Diefenbaker Place, University of Saskatchewan campus; CB330, College Avenue Campus, University of Regina
- File:
- Download the event notice