"Policy-based evidence making" is a pejorative term which refers to the commissioning of research in order to support a policy which has already been decided upon.
In The Politics of Evidence: From evidence-based policy to the good governance of evidence, Justin Parkhurst quotes the following example from Professor Anne Glover, then Chief Scientific Officer to the European Commission:[2] Let's imagine a Commissioner over the weekend thinks, "Let's ban the use of credit cards in the EU because credit cards lead to personal debt".
So that commissioner will come in on Monday morning and say to his or her Director General, "Find me the evidence that demonstrates that this is the case"Similar reasoning has been advanced in respect of public policy on alcohol[3] and narcotics.
[4] In July 2006, Rebecca Boden and Debbie Epstein published a paper in which they wrote:[5] This need [for evidence] has been reified in the UK and elsewhere, as routines of "evidence-based policy"-making have been hardwired into the business of Government.
Intuitively, basing policies that affect people's lives and the economy on rigorous academic research sounds rational and desirable.