The emerging conception of the policy sciences

Abstract

The policy sciences may be conceived as knowledge of the policy process and of the relevance of knowledge in the process. Professional careers in the theoretical branches of policy analysis have been typically academic and include professors of political science, jurisprudence, political economy, and public administration. One novelty of recent decades has been the prodigious multiplication of policy careers having little direct contact with traditional policy theory, though grounded in some specialized knowledge of the physical, biological, or cultural sciences. New specialties have arisen that affect the procedures of the policy making process itself, such as the handling of computerized information.

Whatever their origin policy scientists appear to be converging toward a distinctive outlook. Contextuality calls for a cognitive map of the whole social process in reference to which each specific activity is considered. Problem orientation includes five intellectual tasks : goal clarification; trend description; analysis of conditions; projection of future developments; invention, evaluation and selection of alternatives. There is also a distinctive synthesis of technique, guided by principles of content and procedure.

A distinctive identity image is evolving in which the role of the mediator-integrator among men of knowledge and between knowledge and action is becoming more explicit.