Management Sciences and Policy Sciences

Policy Sciences are making challenging “revolutionary” claims, and these are critically reviewed. Note is taken of the limited domain of the field, to public policy making, and the advisability for such a basis for differentiating this professional subgroup is questioned. There is an attempt to distinguish between the various schools and antecedents of Policy Sciences. In this paper a technological perspective is taken. What are the differentiating skills and technologies Policy Sciences promises to bring to its clients? Is intersector awareness, interdisciplinarity, and the application of the behavioral sciences a Policy Sciences monopoly or the natural development of systems technologies in a changing environment? The negative mode of comparison of Policy Sciences with Systems Analysis and Systems Engineering as a basis for building this new profession is criticized as inadequate and misleading. An analogy is made, between the checkered history of Operations Research, and Policy Sciences, with the implication that many of the same mistakes are being made. Policy Science perspectives that exclusively emphasize public top level policy making are criticized as too limited. The lack of and need for Policy Science analysis of the strategies for attempting to introduce and integrate Policy Sciences into institutions is pointed out. The potential contributions and role of Policy Sciences are analyzed and related to existing and developing Management Science perspectives. A plea is made for unity in place of competition.     

Policy Sciences: The State of the Discipline

This overview surveys the conceptual and practical development of the policy sciences as an independent field of academic studies. It outlines the conditions that led to the emergence of this field and its expansion over the years. In addition, the article portrays the range of substantive topics and methodologies of the policy sciences. Finally, it presents the logic that guided the structure of this symposium.     

The Policy Sciences: The Challenge of Complexity

This essay reviews some of the recent criticisms of positivist science. It interprets this criticism, more generally, as directed towards the complexity of social science phenomena and the difficulty of dealing with complexity epistemologically and methodologically. Rather than ignoring complexity, changing the subject matter or explaining it away, we argue that complexity may be acknowledged and studied systematically withn the context of post-positivist approaches. The essay than proposes several strategies for conceptualizing and researching complexity (at a "meta-level" from substantive policy research) that are based in systems theory.     

Welfare Reform and Models of Public Policy: Why Policy Sciences Are Required

Policy could be studied on the basis of three different models: ideological, social science, and policy sciences. Policy in accordance with ideology may not necessarily rely on solid rigorous research to back it up. Policy made solely in accordance with a rigorous social science model might be able to demonstrate a causal relationship between a given policy and desired outcomes, and in the process establish a clear role for good research in the policy process. But it often fails to account for the larger social and political context in which policy is formulated. Good policy should be based on rigorous social science research, while also factoring in the values of the broader society, that is, ideology. This would imply that in order to bridge the gap, that good policy should be formulated in accordance with the policy sciences model because it connects the rigorous methodology of the social sciences with the larger social policy context, that is, the broader policy process. When analyzing the reform of 1996 within the framework of these models, it becomes clear that while the legislation is highly ideological, it is not based on any serious research that would satisfy the criteria of the social science model. It fails the policy sciences model, in part, because its absence of clearly defined objectives, or a single objective, makes the task of measurement difficult. On the contrary, this legislation is a good example of why the policy community would do better to rely more on the policy sciences.     

政策的终结与“终结的政策”

政策终结实质上是决策者的再决策行为。政策终结有利于节省政策资源、提高政策效率和优化政策系统。但是,当前我国政策终结失范影响了政策终结工作的推进,从而影响了改革的进程。因此,尽快建立与健全“政策终结的政策”是推进政策终结顺利进行的根本。     

International Relations and the Methodological Turn

Confusion has arisen in the debate between the advocates of classical and behavioural modes of analysis because epistemological and methodological issues are conflated in the debate. A distinction between logic-in-use and reconstructed logic disentangles these issues and demonstrates that the division between the classical and behavioural approaches cannot be sustained on methodological or epistemological grounds. History and social science cannot be distinguished in terms of either epistemology or methodology but only by the kind of research questions asked. This argument is reinforced by examining the methodological and epistemological posture adopted by Waltz. It is an illusion to imagine that theoretical debates in international relations will be resolved by methodological or epistemological fiat.     

The Fact/Value Distinction and the Social Sciences

Metaethics is an especially illuminating context for exploring the relation between facts and values. There are good reasons in favor of a cognitivist, realist interpretation of moral value, and some of the elements of that interpretation suggest bases for rejecting the alleged fact/value distinction in social scientific explanations. Some of the main objections to the alleged fact/value distinction and to expressivist interpretations of moral value are articulated, with a view to showing their relevance to the understanding of social phenomena more broadly. Also, the way in which rationality inevitably involves normativity is discussed because it is a crucial consideration in regard to understanding the normative aspects of issues the social sciences seek to explain.     

Strategic Thinking,Shared Meaning‐Making and the Interpretive Turn in Policy ‐ A Case Study

Governments' demands for results in a complex and rapidly changing policy environment call for more strategic and nuanced ways of approaching policy. Drawing on the work of the British interpretive ‘turn’, evidenced in the network governance literature and the differentiated polity critique of Westminster narratives, and of Liedkta on strategy as design, this paper suggests that shared strategic narratives, more consciously applied to policy development and implementation, could deliver better results; that consensus from shared meaning‐making may have depth, and that it could emphasise the transformative over the conservative forces of individuals' traditions and beliefs. Data for the paper came from a micro‐study on the implementation of SmartGate automated border processing system in New Zealand.     

解放思想的当代形态与阐释维度

解放思想是重大政治问题,又是理想生活问题。它是人与社会发展的共同需要,是一种与思想活动、生活行动和社会运动相互贯通的总体性和长期性过程。解放思想作为思想意识的形态,说明它不等于但又依存于、倾向于思想解放,它和思想解放融合在主体的生活世界之中。这是基于哲学世界观的认识维度。解放思想作为生活意识的形态,就是主体直面生活的开放态度、是主体从容生活作为发展意识的形态,说明它是推进全社会更彻底的思想解放、更协调的科学发展的社会精神气质。这是基于哲学发展观的建构维度。     

The Social Sciences and a New Administration

The policy issues confronting the new administration in 2009 can benefit greatly from the results of social, behavioral, and economic sciences research. Climate change, energy, human capital, social, capital, migration, public health, fairness, new technologies, and foreign and defense policy are all issues that the research has addressed. The participation of social scientists in the policy process will enhance the contributions of the research.

Women Offenders and the Gendered Effects of Public Policy1

At 17%, women represent a significant proportion of all offenders under criminal justice supervision in the US. Drawing on the findings from their report, “Gender-Responsive Strategies: Research, Practice, and Guiding Principles for Women Offenders,” the authors maintain that public policy has ignored the context of women's lives and that women offenders have disproportionately suffered from the impact of ill-informed public policy. This discussion of the implications of gender within the criminal justice system is based on a simple assumption: responding to the differences between women and men in criminal behavior and to their antecedents is critical to gender-responsive policy. Building on the pathway theoretical perspective, we find that in addition to the gendered impact of the war on drugs, policy changes in welfare reform, housing, and other social policy arenas combine to create a disparate impact on drug abusing women and women of color. Key policy areas affecting the lives of women offenders and their children include welfare benefits, drug treatment, housing, education, employment, and reunification with children. We conclude that addressing the realities of women's lives through gender-responsive policy and programs is fundamental to improved outcomes at all criminal justice phases. A blueprint for gender-responsive policy development is described through six guiding principles and their policy implications.     

Innovating Science Policy: Restructuring S&T Policy for the Twenty-first Century1

Over the next twenty years, accelerating scientific and technical developments will spawn immense changes to society that can be both crucially beneficial and tragically destructive. This trend, principally occurring outside of government control, is both helping the United States to improve defense and economic security and producing threats to national security. To deal with these increasingly technical issues, the nation's leadership needs to be armed with considerable scientific and technological acumen. Hence, the United States should explore the creation of a national security science and technology (S&T) strategy that improves: (1) scientific analysis available to decision makers; (2) understanding of the S&T needed to maintain national security; (3) coordination and collaboration among S&T providers; (4) control of dangerous technologies; (5) technology prioritization and acquisition processes; and (6) the dialog on enhancing the application of the products of private sector and foreign research for American national security purposes. Policies that address these issues will have to achieve the difficult balance between government and scientists’ influence over research and development (R&D). This article explores how to better deliver technical advice to high-level decision makers, as a means to better deal with emerging threats that are enabled by the rapid innovation and proliferation of scientific knowledge throughout the world.     

Rural Policy Assumptions and Policy Failure: The Case of the Re-establishment Grant

For 30 years successive Commonwealth governments have offered grants to encourage marginal farmers to quit farming. The grants have increased in generosity over time but there has only ever been a limited uptake of the program. This paper considers the assumptions policy-makers have made about farmers' behaviour in formulating these programs and compares these with sociological evidence about farmers' incentive structures. This case study provides an example of how the failure to take account of a sufficiently broad range of values when formulating policy can undermine policy objectives from the outset.     

改革开放以来解放思想的十大历史经验

思想解放是改革开放的先导和保证。一部改革开放的历史就是一部思想解放史。改革开放30年来,我们在取得伟大历史性成就的同时,也在解放思想方面积累了宝贵的经验。解放思想要坚实践标准和生产力标准,要围绕重大的理论和实际问题解放思想,要建设社会主义民主政治等等都是解放思想的成功经验。这些经验对今天的改革开放和社会主义建设仍然具有极其重要的理论和实践意义。