Dr. Sharon Manson Singer

President

April 6, 2009

Evidence, Instinct and ValuesThe Role of Citizens in

Decision Making

Evidence, Decisions, Outcomes: Optimizing the Use of Drugs and Health Technologies 2009 CADTH Symposium

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Overview

• CPRN Research Model

• The Value of Evidence

• Acting with Political Instinct

• Understanding Values

• The Role of Citizens

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CPRN’s Research

• Canada’s leading socio-economic think tank

• High quality academic-level, peer-reviewed

research

• Research routinely translated into policy

options

• Citizen engagement on policy options to

discover what Canadians value – Round

Tables, Deliberative Dialogues

• Broad dissemination through our web site –

over 2.5 million downloads annually

• Neutral and non-partisan

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4

CPRN’s Deliberative Dialogue

Features

• Random Selection from an agreed upon

sampling frame to ensure representative

sample for each dialogue

• Create safe, neutral, non-partisan space for

dialogue

• A process of “justifiable democracy” whereby

citizens justify their policy choices to one

another

• Creates a repository of deeply held values that

can inform political choices

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The Value of Evidence

• Evidence based decision making assumes that

we can know with certainty the right answer

• Western Bio-medical model is based on

scientific evidence and practice

• Often the “Science” is biased, contradictory or

both

• Practice is not always informed by evidence

• Scientific evidence evolves over time

• Trends are not always correct predictors of

outcomes

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Political Instinct

• Evidence is only one piece of the information

used to make decisions

• At a Cabinet table there are many other

considerations and judgments made in the

evaluation of which policy options to adopt,

reject or push off the table

• Key question at the Cabinet table: Where’s the

demand?

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Values

• Values embody the principles which guide our

decision making

• Values are not easily changed – unlike polling

or focus group results, values are a stable

predictor of how citizens will respond to policy

options

• Understanding citizen values can be and

should be known before taking action on

policy options

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The Role of Citizens – Reasons for Exclusion

• Decisions are too complex to be made without

requisite expertise

• Scientific base is too complex to explain

• Protects citizen certainty

• Perception of an average level of risk

• Insufficient time for appropriate consultation

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PSHAW!

• Romanow Commission on Health

• Nuclear Waste Management

• Province of Choice for Young People in

Newfoundland and Labrador

• Citizen Forums on Electoral Reform (BC, ON)

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Social Inclusion Builds Social Cohesion

• Democratic process of decision-making will

have to respond to the technological

expectations of the next generation of citizens

• Social networking technologies enable a new

form of engagement that is participatory and

collaborative

• Participatory democracy allows citizens to

build consensus around trade-offs and

collectively build values for decision-making

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For additional information:

www.cprn.org

e-mail: info@cprn.org

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