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Using Science as Evidence in Public Policy
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Fresh from the contributions made by science to the World War II success, at mid-century the nation adopted a broad policy to invest heavily in science and technology as a foundation for economic growth, social welfare, and national security. The emphasis was on the physical and biological sciences, but the social sciences were mobilized with respect to selected foreign and domestic challenges—area studies for the former and large-scale empirical projects on social welfare for the latter. The 1966 study Equality of Educational Opportunity (known as the Coleman report) is a convenient marker for the arrival of “big” social science. It was designed to inform national and state policy relevant to reducing racial disparities in public education. Other large-scale research projects followed: on a negative income tax, housing allowances, and health insurance, among others. Evaluation research was announced as a new research specialty. Later in the century emphasis was placed on performance metrics, social indicators, ranking schemes, comparative assessment, and related tools and concepts based in social science. Private- sector organizations—university centers and institutes, think tanks, survey houses, and for-profit consulting firms—rapidly expanded in numbers and scope, as did graduate-level schools to prepare professionals for careers in public policy. The federal statistical system made available its significant information base for policy analysis in these nongovernmental settings. The federal government recruited social scientists in executive agencies and on congressional staffs.
Kenneth Prewitt, Thomas A. Schwandt, and Miron L. Straf - Personal Name
978-0-309-26161-6
NONE
Social Science
English
2012
1-123
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