Experimental politics

Slate has a nice article about how the Obama campaign (and some Republican campaigns) is using experiments to determine the effectiveness of particular approaches. I approve.

If these forays seem random, it’s because at least some of them almost certainly are. To those familiar with the campaign’s operations, such irregular efforts at paid communication are indicators of an experimental revolution underway at Obama’s Chicago headquarters. They reflect a commitment to using randomized trials, the result of a flowering partnership between Obama’s team and the Analyst Institute, a secret society of Democratic researchers committed to the practice, according to several people with knowledge of the arrangement.

I'm still hoping for experiments to catch on in policy-making circles.