Associate Professor of Government Gary Wyckoff has written a book titled Policy and Evidence in a Partisan Age: The Great Disconnect, published in May by Urban Institute Press. Wyckoff directs Hamilton's Public Policy Program.
In this atypical approach to issues of public policy in America, Wyckoff rebukes political extremists and claims that both liberals and conservatives have been misled about the effectiveness of public policies. He suggests that the lack of empirical evidence in policy debacles has caused highly partisan politicians to blow policy's value out of proportion. Short-term fiscal policy, long-term growth policy, education, state and local economic development, and welfare are all brimming with exaggeration, he says. Wyckoff recommends that legislators begin to re-evaluate policy from a different perspective so that future generations will be able to discriminate between research-based theories and biased proposals that reflect an ignorance of statistics.
-- by Allison Eck '12
In this atypical approach to issues of public policy in America, Wyckoff rebukes political extremists and claims that both liberals and conservatives have been misled about the effectiveness of public policies. He suggests that the lack of empirical evidence in policy debacles has caused highly partisan politicians to blow policy's value out of proportion. Short-term fiscal policy, long-term growth policy, education, state and local economic development, and welfare are all brimming with exaggeration, he says. Wyckoff recommends that legislators begin to re-evaluate policy from a different perspective so that future generations will be able to discriminate between research-based theories and biased proposals that reflect an ignorance of statistics.
-- by Allison Eck '12
