The use of multiple sources of information in public policy: the Brazilian federal bureaucracy

Abstract

Policy-making is a complex process involving stimuli and conditioning. Understanding the sources of information bureaucrats and public organizations use is essential to characterize policy-making and discuss the opportunities and limits of Evidence-Based Public Policies (EBPP) in the Brazilian context. The different sources of information available to bureaucrats in the country are investigated, such as the state’s internal and external sources and scientific and experiential sources. This paper presents the results of a survey with 2,180 officials of the direct federal administration conducted at the end of 2019. The findings indicate variation in the types of information bureaucrats mobilized depending on policy area and the type of policy work they perform.