Funding Science in America: Congress, Universities, and the Politics of the Academic Pork Barrel

by James D. Savage

• ISBN13: 9780521794619
• ISBN10: 0521794617
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780511825460
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-11-06
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Since the 1950s, the federal government has relied on the peer review system for funding high quality academic science. Yet, despite the success of American science, peer review is under attack for being a biased 'good old boy' network that helps rich research universities get richer. As a remedy for these biases, university presidents and members of Congress have turned to the earmarking of science projects and facilities in the federal budget. This earmarking of funds, however, brings with it new areas of tension and suspicion. Funding Science in America is the first book to explore both the pros and the cons of the controversial academic earmarking issue. Savage analyzes the earmarking decision of both university presidents and members of Congress, identifies those universities that have benefited most from earmarking, as well as examining the question of whether earmarking improves their ability to compete for research.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. The politics of academic earmarking

2. The incentives to earmark

3. AAU and the fight against earmarking

4. The struggle to fund academic research facilities

5. Lobbyists, lobbying, and the pursuit of academic earmarks

6. Congress and the distribution of academic earmarks

7. Congress, and the president, and the fight against earmarking

8. The future of academic earmarking

Notes

Selected bibliography.