Democracy and the Policy Sciences

Democracy and the Policy Sciences PDF Author: Peter deLeon
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438400780
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
As originally proposed by Harold Lasswell, the policy sciences were dedicated to democratic governance. But today they are far removed from the democratic process and do little to promote the American democratic system. This book examines how in the context of American history and the development of the policy sciences, a more democratic, participatory policy analysis could be conceptualized in theory and administered in practice. Peter deLeon argues that for the policy sciences to move toward democracy, they must accept a new analytic paradigm that draws heavily on critical thinking and the writing of post-positivism. To further that end, he presents a "minipopulist" procedure that will allow more citizen participation without hamstringing the processes of government.

Democracy and the Policy Sciences

Democracy and the Policy Sciences PDF Author: Peter deLeon
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438400780
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
As originally proposed by Harold Lasswell, the policy sciences were dedicated to democratic governance. But today they are far removed from the democratic process and do little to promote the American democratic system. This book examines how in the context of American history and the development of the policy sciences, a more democratic, participatory policy analysis could be conceptualized in theory and administered in practice. Peter deLeon argues that for the policy sciences to move toward democracy, they must accept a new analytic paradigm that draws heavily on critical thinking and the writing of post-positivism. To further that end, he presents a "minipopulist" procedure that will allow more citizen participation without hamstringing the processes of government.

Science and Ideology in the Policy Sciences

Science and Ideology in the Policy Sciences PDF Author: Paul Diesing
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 9780202368733
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 490

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Book Description
The purpose of this book is to examine how ideology operates--in the sense of influencing the conduct of inquiry--in the policy sciences, defined as economics, political science, and sociology. The author seeks to identify the main ideologies and show how each ideology produces a preference for certain problems, methods, and hypotheses; how it sensitizes scientists to certain phenomena and suggests certain interpretations of those phenomena; and how it closes off other phenomena and concepts from investigation and testing, or at least distorts that investigation. In this book, Diesing critically examines all the major schools of policy-related social thought from 1930 to 1975. He deals with Neoclassical Economics and its various applications, the Keynesians, the Systems Approach, the Schumpeter perspective, the Critical Intellectuals, the Pluralists, the J. K. Galbraith School, New Left Marxism, and the Ecological Paradigm of Schumacher and others. The world looks different if your perspective is that of a rational small businessman working in a society of hypothetical perfect competition, as opposed to that of a proletarian, looking up at your oppressors. Part One is descriptive and evaluative, considering each ideology in turn; Part Two considers the policy implications. "In 1982, Diesing published a remarkable book entitled Science and Ideology in the Policy Sciences. When I interviewed Diesing in Buffalo in the summer of 1984, he told me that to date, the publication had been reviewed in only two professional journals. I was astounded. Science & Ideology... was the best book I had read in a decade, and it related directly to all the policy sciences. The lack of professional response may partially reflect Diesings disinterest in self-promotion, but beyond this is the community problem. Scholars are recognized within disciplines, but there is only a tiny community of social science. I consider this to be the most brilliant of Diesings books. Like all of Diesings works, it remains highly relevant today."--from the introduction by Richard Hartwig.

Policy Sciences

Policy Sciences PDF Author: Arie Y. Lewin
Publisher: Pergamon
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description


The Future of the Policy Sciences

The Future of the Policy Sciences PDF Author: Anis B. Brik
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1800376480
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
This forward-thinking book examines the future of public policy as a discipline, both as it is taught and as it is practiced. Critically assessing the limits of current theories and approaches, leading scholars in the field highlight new models and perspectives.

The Policy Sciences

The Policy Sciences PDF Author: Daniel Lerner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Social sciences
Languages : en
Pages : 14

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Book Description


The Power of Systems

The Power of Systems PDF Author: Eglė Rindzevičiūtė
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501706780
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
In The Power of Systems, Eglė Rindzevičiūtė introduces readers to one of the best-kept secrets of the Cold War: the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), an international think tank established by the US and USSR to advance scientific collaboration. From 1972 until the late 1980s, IIASA was one of the very few permanent platforms where policy scientists from both sides of the Cold War could work together to articulate and solve world problems. A rare zone of freedom, communication, and negotiation. East-West scientists co-produced computer simulations of the long-term world future, using global modeling to explore the possible effects of climate change and nuclear winter. Their concern with global issues also became a vehicle for transformation inside the Soviet Union. The Power of Systems explores how computer modeling, cybernetics, and the systems approach challenged Soviet governance by undermining the linear notions of control on which Soviet governance was based and creating new objects and techniques of government.

A Pre-view of Policy Sciences

A Pre-view of Policy Sciences PDF Author: Harold Dwight Lasswell
Publisher: Elsevier Publishing Company
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description


Pragmatism and the Origins of the Policy Sciences

Pragmatism and the Origins of the Policy Sciences PDF Author: William N. Dunn
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781108730518
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 75

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Book Description
This Element presents an examination of the origins of the policy sciences in the School of Pragmatism at the University of Chicago in the period 1915-38. Harold D. Lasswell, the principal creator of the policy sciences, based much of his work on the perspectives of public policy of John Dewey and other pragmatists at Chicago. Characteristics of the policy sciences include orientations that are normative, policy-relevant, contextual, and multi-disciplinary. These orientations originate in pragmatist principles of the unity of knowledge and action and functionalist explanations of action by reference to values. These principles are central to the future development of the policy sciences.

Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal

Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal PDF Author: Heather E. Douglas
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN: 082297357X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
The role of science in policymaking has gained unprecedented stature in the United States, raising questions about the place of science and scientific expertise in the democratic process. Some scientists have been given considerable epistemic authority in shaping policy on issues of great moral and cultural significance, and the politicizing of these issues has become highly contentious. Since World War II, most philosophers of science have purported the concept that science should be "value-free." In Science, Policy and the Value-Free Ideal, Heather E. Douglas argues that such an ideal is neither adequate nor desirable for science. She contends that the moral responsibilities of scientists require the consideration of values even at the heart of science. She lobbies for a new ideal in which values serve an essential function throughout scientific inquiry, but where the role values play is constrained at key points, thus protecting the integrity and objectivity of science. In this vein, Douglas outlines a system for the application of values to guide scientists through points of uncertainty fraught with moral valence.Following a philosophical analysis of the historical background of science advising and the value-free ideal, Douglas defines how values should-and should not-function in science. She discusses the distinctive direct and indirect roles for values in reasoning, and outlines seven senses of objectivity, showing how each can be employed to determine the reliability of scientific claims. Douglas then uses these philosophical insights to clarify the distinction between junk science and sound science to be used in policymaking. In conclusion, she calls for greater openness on the values utilized in policymaking, and more public participation in the policymaking process, by suggesting various models for effective use of both the public and experts in key risk assessments.

Advice and Consent

Advice and Consent PDF Author: Peter DeLeon
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610441540
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
Policy analysis, as a practical matter, is hardly new. Throughout history, rulers have sought advice from priests or sages, and monarchs have conferred with counselors. The emergence of empirical social research in the nineteenth century laid the groundwork for policy advice that was more than an idiosyncratic political exercise, but it was not until well into this century that the systematic examination of policy issues became feasible. Advice and Consent traces the recent course of the "policy sciences," a term coined in 1951 to describe an analytic approach that draws on political science, sociology, law, economics, psychology, and operations research to examine specific social problems in context. Peter deLeon's unique contribution is to delineate two separate but related currents in the development of the policy sciences: first, the evolution of intellectual tools for analysis ("advice"); and second, the evolution of a perceived need for policy research as prompted by events such as the war on poverty ("consent"). Peter deLeon's concise and literate account of how these two trends shaped the policy sciences and affected each other clarifies the present state of policy research, explores its failure to realize fully its ideals, and frames the challenges facing the policy sciences as they struggle to complete their transformation from academic fancy to institutional fact.