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Dissolving Decision Making? Models and Their Roles in Decision-Making Processes and Policy at Large

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 November 2014

Ragna Zeiss  and
Stans van Egmond
Ragna Zeiss
Affiliation:
Maastricht University E-mail: r.zeiss@maastrichuniversity.nl
Stans van Egmond
Affiliation:
Rathenau Instituut E-mail: s.vanegmond@rathenau.nl
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Argument

This article studies the roles three science-based models play in Dutch policy and decision making processes. Key is the interaction between model construction and environment. Their political and scientific environments form contexts that shape the roles of models in policy decision making. Attention is paid to three aspects of the wider context of the models: a) the history of the construction process; b) (changes in) the political and scientific environments; and c) the use in policy processes over longer periods of time. Models are more successfully used when they are constructed in a stable political and scientific environment. Stability and certainty within a scientific field seems to be a key predictor for the usefulness of models for policy making. The economic model is more disputed than the ecology-based model and the model that has its theoretical foundation in physics and chemistry. The roles models play in policy processes are too complex to be considered as straightforward technocratic powers.

Type
Topical Section: Models at Work – Models in Decision Making
Information
Science in Context , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , December 2014 , pp. 631 - 657
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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