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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.
List of contents
Preface
IntroductionThe Influence of Social Scientists on Public Policy
Social Scientists and PolicyThe Third Community, Policy Inquiry, and Social Scientists
Policy Paradigms, Experts and the State: The Case of Macroeconomic Policy-Making in Britain
The Market for Social Scientific Knowledge: The Case of Free Trade in Canada
Knowledge, Power, and the StateThe Uneasy Partnership Endures: Social Science and Government
Social Science and State Developments: The Structuration of Discourse in the Social Sciences
Knowledge, Power, and Policy: Reflections on Foucault
Background Reading: The Crisis of Policy Sciences
Bibliography
Index
About the author
STEPHEN BROOKS is Professor of Political Science at the University of Windsor and Visiting Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan. His most recent books include America Through Foreign Eyes: Classic Interpreters of American Political Life and Canadian Democracy, 3rd Edition.
ALAIN G. GAGNON is an Assistant Professor at Carleton University.
