Turning innovation into evidence-based policies: Lessons learned from free commune experiments

There is a great need for innovation in the public sector and for improved understanding of how innovation can be turned into evidence‐based public policy. This article discusses potential contributions from 30 years of experience in the Nordic countries with a reform programme called ‘Free Commune Experiments’ (FCEs). Here, local authorities are granted waivers from legislation to experiment with normally ‘illegal’ practices. The article asks if the FCEs have managed to synthesise local governments’ potential to generate novel practices with central government’s potential to evaluate, verify and disseminate effective innovations. The conclusion is that the FCEs have been effective generators of policy ideas, but that limited knowledge has been produced about the effects of innovative practices and whether or not new policies should be replicated beyond ‘test sites’. With some changes, it is argued that the programme could nonetheless be a strategy worth emulating beyond the Nordic countries.