Reconnecting people and politics through policy modelling and scenario generation

If you have an example of a correct forecast of a policy impact, then you are very lucky. An extensive literature search and open discussions over the Internet with policy makers and policy modellers has failed to turn up a single example of such a correct forecast. Emotional words such as "vulnerability" and "quality of life" are as treacherous as they are useful. They mean different things to different people and, especially, to different interest groups concerned with almost any policy. It doesn't take much of a search of the academic or professional literature or newspapers and magazines to find differences of opinion on what effects any policy will have on these features of society. At the same time, there often seems to be a lack of agreement or even discussion on what these words mean.