Abstract
It always seemed that social scientists could contribute a great deal to policymakers. Since policymakers needed information about the likely consequences of policy choices and social scientists were trained to reason and collect information about social processes in careful, rigorous ways, social scientists could reduce the uncertainty about the outcomes of policy choices. This simple syllogism stimulated the development of a large social science establishment and thickened the bonds between policymakers and social scientists. In fact, policy-making processes now routinely incorporate social scientists and social science findings as part of the appartus that determines (and legitimates) policy choices.1
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References
For some general discussions of the role of social science in policymaking see: Laurence E. Lynn, Jr., ed., Knowledge and Policy: The Uncertain Connection (Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, 1978); Henry J. Aaron, Politics and the Professors (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Instituition, 1978); Charles E. Lindblom and David K. Cohen, Usable Knowledge: Social Science and Social Problem Solving (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1979 ); and Seymour J. Deitchman, The Best Laid Schemes: A Tale of Social Research and Bureaucracy ( Cambridge, Mass.: The M.I.T. Press, 1976 ).
Edward Banfield, “Policy-Science as Metaphysical Madness” in Bureaucrats, Policy Analysts, Statesmen: Who Leads, ed. by Robert A. Goldwin ( Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1980 ).
Abraham Kaplan, The Conduct of Inquiry (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated, 1964 ).
Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions ( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970 ).
Edith Stokey and Richard J. Zeckhauser, A Primer for Policy Analyses (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1978 ).
For an excellent example of this sort of theory, see Philip J. Cook, “The Effect of Gun Availability on Robbery and Robbery Murder: A Cross-section Study of Fifty Cities,” in Policy Studies Review Annual, ed. by Robert H. Hauman and B. Bruce Zehner, I II ( Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, Inc., 1979 ).
Mark H. Moore, “Managing the Effective Price of Handguns.” (Mimeographed; available from author.)
These observations are based on personal experience with a major study to review what was known of the relationship of drug abuse and crime. For the early result, see Report of the Panel on Drug Use and Criminal Behavior: Preliminary Draft (Research Triangle, N.C.: Research Triangle Institute, June, 1976 ).
For an example of this, see M. Harvey Brenner, “Drug Abuse Trends in National Economy and Crime Policy Report: (Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University, School of Public Health, 1977.)
Mark H. Moore, “The Anatomy of the Heroin Problem: An Exercise in Problem Definition,” Policy Analysis 2 (Fall, 1976), 639–62.
Howard Raiffa, Decision Analysis (Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley Publishing Co., Inc., 1968 ).
Charles E. Lindblom, The Policy Making Process (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968 ).
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© 1983 The Hastings Center
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Moore, M.H. (1983). Social Science and Policy Analysis. In: Callahan, D., Jennings, B. (eds) Ethics, The Social Sciences, and Policy Analysis. The Hastings Center Series in Ethics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-7015-4_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-7015-4_11
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