Social Scientists, Policy, and the State

This collection of original essays focuses on the relationship of social scientists to the state and public policy in the industrialized democracies. The comparative approach of this book provides the basis for broader generalization about the linkages between social science and social scientist and the modern state and political power. Social Scientists, Policy, and the State brings fresh analysis to specific issues that are important to a more general understanding of these linkages.

Part I examines the ways in which social scientists participate in the policy-making process. Part II looks at the uses made of ideas generated by social scientific research and at variations within and relations between the critical and expert roles of the social scientist. Part III discusses the factors that have contributed to change in the relationship of social scientists to power and to the state. This section also includes a detailed discussion about the cultural and structural conditions that facilitate or block the political influence of social scientists. This book should have equal appeal to teachers and researchers in the fields of comparative politics, policy making, and the sociology of knowledge.