Assumptions on policy issues

What are assumptions?

In determining what is to count as evidence and the discovery or
selection/presentation of evidence, assumptions about the nature of the social world
play a fundamental role.
In an existential sense we acquire the stuff that becomes assumptions through the
ordinary processes of living in, and acquiring stories and theories about, the world.
Assumptions provide the stuff that makes up the great systems of belief we adhere
to
The stuff that makes up actually existing assumptions typically include: beliefs
about the basic nature of social reality, the reality of nature, the character of
history, or the qualities of social reality or the human condition; and methodological
or epistemological propositions about what credible knowledge looks like, or how we
are best advised to do our research and what kind of disposition researchers should
adopt.
We can identify assumptions in social scientific research by asking simple questions:
What kind of question is the researcher asking and/or what kind of answer is s/he
looking for? Is the question descriptive? Taxonomic? Analytic? Interpretative?
Explanatory? Evaluative?
What assumptions about the nature of the world does the author make in
determining what kinds of evidence will be relevant?
What kinds of assumptions does the researcher rely on to warrant their posited
links between the evidence evinced and the claims made?

how flawed assumptions about behavior undermine policy goals, and how a more
nuanced understanding of behavior and choice can improve policy and program
design.