Ethics, The Social Sciences, and Policy Analysis

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxvi

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2. Policy Analysis in a New Key

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Interpretive Social Science and Policy Analysis

      • Bruce Jennings

      Pages 3-35

   3. Social Science as Practical Reason

      • Robert N. Bellah

      Pages 37-64

   4. Comment on Robert N. Bellah, “Social Science as Practical Reason”

      • James M. Banner Jr.

      Pages 65-68

   5. Imperfect Democracy and the Moral Responsibilities of Policy Advisers

      • Michael S. McPherson

      Pages 69-81

   6. Value-Critical Policy Analysis

      • Martin Rein

      Pages 83-111

   7. Emancipatory Social Science and Social Critique

      • Kai Nielsen

      Pages 113-157

3. Social Science and Political Advocacy

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 159-159

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   2. The British Tradition of Social Administration

      • Martin Bulmer

      Pages 161-185

   3. Social Research and Political Advocacy

      • Jeanne Guillemin, Irving Louis Horowitz

      Pages 187-211

   4. Ideology, Interests, and Information

      • Carol H. Weiss

      Pages 213-245

4. Disciplinary Standards and Policy Analysis

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 247-247

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   2. Use of Social Science Data for Policy Analysis and Policymaking

      • Ruth S. Hanft

      Pages 249-270

   3. Social Science and Policy Analysis

      • Mark H. Moore

      Pages 271-291

   4. Subverting Policy Premises

      • Kenneth Prewitt

      Pages 293-304

   5. Partial Knowledge

      • Thomas H. Murray

      Pages 305-331

5. Toward Ethical Guidelines

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 333-333

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   2. Toward Ethical Guidelines for Social Science Research in Public Policy

      • Donald P. Warwick, Thomas F. Pettigrew

      Pages 335-368

6. Back Matter

   Pages 369-381

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The social sciences playa variety of multifaceted roles in the policymaking process. So varied are these roles, indeed, that it is futile to talk in the singular about the use of social science in policymaking, as if there were one constant relationship between two fixed and stable entities. Instead, to address this issue sensibly one must talk in the plural about uses of dif­ ferent modes of social scientific inquiry for different kinds of policies under various circumstances. In some cases, the influence of social scientific research is direct and tangible, and the connection between the find­ ings and the policy is easy to see. In other cases, perhaps most, its influence is indirect-one small piece in a larger mosaic of politics, bargaining, and compromise. Occasionally the findings of social scientific studies are explicitly drawn upon by policymakers in the formation, implementation, or evaluation of particular policies. More often, the categories and theoretical models of social science provide a general background orientation within which policymakers concep­ tualize problems and frame policy options. At times, the in­ fluence of social scientific work is cognitive and informational in nature; in other instances, policymakers use social science primarily for symbolic and political purposes in order to le­ gitimate preestablished goals and strategies. Nonetheless, amid this diversity and variety, troubling general questions persistently arise.

• Moral
• Orient
• democracy
• ethics
• evaluation
• issue
• model
• morality
• mosaic
• plural
• policy
• politics
• science
• singular

• Institute of Society, Ethics and the Life Sciences, The Hastings Center, Hastings-on-Hudson, USA

  Daniel Callahan, Bruce Jennings

Policies and ethics