Woodrow Wilson's internationalism, liberal opposition to war as an instrument of policy, and the rigours of the Great Depression were among the reasons for Americans' reluctance to concern themselves with the growth of fascism in Europe.
It is a lazy approach to policy that dispenses with rigour and evidence, but it appears tough.
Roy Hattersley, his junior minister there, later told Healey's biographer, Edward Pearce, of "the bliss of working for somebody who had the subject absolutely at their fingertips, who knew what he wanted and pursued his own concept of defence policy with a critical rigour which I have never seen from anyone else".
Given the need for evidence of the effectiveness of policy initiatives, however, the rigour of the RCT is still the goal.
Applying a theory of change a description of the relationships between activities, outputs and outcomes can help to define a pathway and inform the evaluation by delineating impact trajectories and fostering generalizability assessment, evaluation rigour and policy and practice influence (Sridharan et al. 2006; Pawson and Sridharan 2009; Kubisch et al. 2010).
"A future Labor government should investigate the establishment of a body to apply the same rigour to social policy as is applied to other areas of policy... to inform change and reduce waste," it says.
To these it added greater fiscal and monetary rigour, better social policy and a concern with equality of opportunity.
Fuzzy concepts, scanty evidence, policy distance: the case for rigour and policy relevance in critical regional studies.
There is an enduring tension within the policy process between perceptions of rigour, time urgency and the role of science vs advocacy.
KEY MESSAGES There is an enduring tension within the policy process between perceptions of rigour, time urgency and the role of science vs advocacy.
