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Why Do Governments Do Stupid Things?

Would government policies fail less often if they were based on careful analysis of good evidence to find out what works?

Trust in government is at an all-time low in many countries. From failed healthcare policies to missed intelligence, government blunders happen often – and visibly. But successful policy-making is hard (and fixes are rarely as quick as politicians like to promise).

Some argue that governments would do stupid things less often if they based their policies on the careful analysis of good evidence; find out what works, in other words, and then do that.

But that’s not how most governments operate, most of the time.

Why not?

Presenter: Michael Blastland

(Photo: a group of journalists being surrounded by the Media. Credit Shutterstock)

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23 minutes

Last on

Sat 10 Dec 2016 22:06GMT

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  • Sat 10 Dec 2016 22:06GMT

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