Social Science Research and Government: Comparative Essays on Britain and the United States

by Edited by Martin Bulmer

• ISBN13: 9780521125772
• ISBN10: 0521125774
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-01-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This collection of original essays considers the relationship between social science research and government during the last 30 years in Britain and the United States including the consequences of policies towards social science of the Reagan and Thatcher governments to frame economic and social policies. What sorts of social science research are available and how are they used? How has the use of the social sciences grown and with what consequences? What is the role of such expertise in the democratic political process? These are some of the questions which the book seeks to answer by a detailed comparison of two of the leading Western nations in social science. Twenty authoritative contributors, most of whom work or have worked in government, review the general features of government/social science interaction, and examine in detail the institutions and methodology by means of which such knowledge-use is fostered. This is a unique collection, of general interest both to social science staff and graduate students and to policy-makers working inside government.

Table of Contents

Preface

Contributors

Governments and social science: patterns of mutual influence

Research in the Context of Policy-Making

The governmental context: interaction between structure and influence

Governmental structures, social science and the development of economic social policies

The use of social research: myths and models

Networks of influence: the social sciences in Britain since the war

Social science in Whitehall: two analytic perspectives Stuart

Congressional committee staffs (do, do not) use analysis

Social science training as related to the policy roles of US career officials and appointees: the decline of analysis

Perhaps Minister: the messy world of 'in house' government social research

Social science in government: the case of the Home Office Research and Planning Unit

The work of the Commission for Economic and Social Change in Germany

Methodologies for Policy Research

Varieties of methodology: strengthening the contribution of social science

The links between policy, survey research and academic social science: America and Britain compared

Survey research for government

The Federal effort in developing social indicators and social reporting in the United States during the 1970s

Social science analysis and congressional uses: the case of the United States General Accounting Office

Comparative aspects of randomised experiments for planning and evaluation

The Political Context

The social sciences in an age of uncertainty

'Pulling through': conspiracies, counterplots and how the SSRC escaped the axe in 1982

Social science under siege: the political response 1981-1984

Index

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