The Social Scientist and Policy-making: Some Cautionary Thoughts and Transatlantic Reflections

Abstract

There has been a rapid increase in public policy by social scientists over the last ten years, but much of the literature that attempts to discuss the contribution that social scientists might make to public policy-making appears to be overoptimistic and exaggerates the potential contribution that social science might make. One reason for this may be that it has drawn too much on the American experience which is not applicable to the British context because social science has a lower status generally here and because policy-makers feel that they have less need of outside help. Another reason for the tendency to over-optimism is that insufficient attention is being given to the limitations placed on policy-makers, especially the need for rapid decision-making, and to the inappropriateness of much social science to policy-making. There are also underlying conflicts of attitudes between policymakers and social scientists that make co-operation very difficult, not least of these being the fact that social scientists are unable to back their theories with validated proof. Given these restraints, the most effective contribution may come externally from books by social scientists with a conscious policy intent which permeate public opinion rust and then get translated into policy. This certainly seems to have been the traditional role of social scientists in this country.

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