This chapter builds on the discussion in Chapter 3 of science in policy and politics by asking one question:

• What are the implications of different degrees of values consensus in decision contexts for the role of science in policy and politics?

The chapter answers this question through an extended “thought experiment” – an exercise in the imagination – that describes decision contexts that share some surface similarities, but suggest vastly different roles for science and expertise in the actual process of decision-making. Thought experiments allow the thinker to create carefully constructed, hypothetical scenarios in order to highlight aspects of the real world that are typically difficult to see or somehow obscured. Politics and policy are concepts that are often conflated and difficult to distinguish, making it difficult to understand the role of science in decision-making. The thought experiment introduced below uses two scenarios to highlight the importance of the context of decision-making as a critical factor that shapes the interconnections of science, politics, and policy. This chapter builds upon the more general discussion of science and decision-making in Chapter 3 to explore in some detail the importance of political context for how we think about the role of science in decision-making.

Abortion Politics and Tornado Politics

The significance of information in decision-making, and the types of information that are significant for decisions, are a function of political context – specifically, science plays a different role in situations of values consensus and low uncertainty than in the opposite circumstances.