Evidence-Framed Policy-Making: Production of Knowledge and the Europeanization of National Drug Policy

Abstract

Evidence-based policymaking has become one of the defining concepts of contemporary European policymaking. In its ideal form it is often promoted as a means of ensuring public policy is delivered more efficiently and effectively by more closely integrating science and research in the policy process. From a more critical perspective, however, EBP serves to obscure the politics inherent in any public policy decision, privileging certain values, practices and actors over others. Indeed, the very legitimacy of EBP within a democratic system – in which agency of elected officials is constrained by unelected experts – lies with the articulation and valorization of the supposed objectivity of evidence. Drug policy is a particularly pertinent case in point. Not only has the development of a distinctive European approach to drug policy been promoted by the EU – one based on a balanced approach in which evidence takes priority over ideology – but the governance framework at the European level is heavily weighted towards to the gathering of data and evidence which favours a public health approach. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is a focal point for national drug observatories and serves a dual purpose – in both being a promoter and producer of drug evidence. The first chapter looks at the concept of depoliticization, its impact in contemporary modes of governance and its relation to notions of expertise and objectivity. The second chapter provides a historical account of evidence-based policymaking and its political and policy effects. The third chapter analyses developments in governance particular to European integration and provides an account of the development of a distinctly European drug policy. The fourth chapter tackles the role and functioning of the EMCDDA and its place in drug policy as an advocate for evidence-based policymaking. The concluding chapter brings the arguments together and provides examples of the constraints inherent to EBP.