Social Science, Social Engineering, and Public Policy
PUBLIC POLICY AND ADMINISTRATIVE STUDIES, O.P. Dwivedi, ed., Vol.4, pp. 203-220, Guelph, Ontario
22 Pages Posted: 17 Jul 2011 Last revised: 29 Aug 2011
Date Written: April 15, 1987
Abstract
This paper attempts to take stock of problems bound up with the application of reason and social scientific knowledge to public problems to ask what role reason and social science can and should play in the formulation and execution of public policy, and to inquire into the nature and sources of disillusionment with rational debate and social science in contemporary society.
Keywords: public policy, scientific knowledge, policy science, social science, reason, rational debate, anti-rationalism, open systems, ceterus paribus, reflexivity, values, interests, public good, institutional inertia
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