Analytics in Government

[Belsnickel]

(06-29-2018, 04:03 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: I am almost certain they already do studies like that and have all kinds of stats on things like that.

I thought you were talking what it would be like literally running the country like an analytic heavy sports team. Lol

Yeah, we do have all sorts of stats on things like that. I think I look at this a bit differently than most because I am the type of person that would be doing these analytics and writing policies with them, so I have a deeper working knowledge of how it all works.

(06-29-2018, 04:10 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: LOL. No, it makes sense. Never heard of the Techocrat thing, but I get where you are coming from and it is interesting. You bring up valid points as to why it wouldnt work. Hopefully there can be a good mix of democracy and "techocracy" in the future. 

That is the ideal. What we strive for are evidence based policy solutions to items on the legislative agenda.

So elected officials care about an issue because they are being yelled at by mouthy jagoffs contacted by concerned citizens. We research the issue and run statistical modeling and come up with (potentially) several options that would be viable. It is then up to the legislature to craft the policy using this information and debate and come to compromises that happen in a healthy, functioning democracy. The solutions are evidence based, the information is coming from career staffers that are experts in the field and also in the implementation of the type of policy. There is much rejoicing because things are working as they should.

Alternatively, there are think tanks that can also help in the wonkiness. Brookings, for instance, was created to provide a source external to the government to provide unbiased evidence based policy decisions. Since then, other think tanks have cropped up. Some good, some not as good. One easy way to tell if a think tank is reputable is to look online for their financials. If they spend more money on communications/education (i.e. marketing their ideas) than on the actual research (coughcoughHeritageFoundationcoughcough) that is a good sign that they aren't necessarily focused on working towards evidence based solutions.