Symposium: Policy analysis for congress. Policy analysis for congress: Lengthening the time horizon

Policy analysis for the Congress is a timely subject. Several policy initiatives have emerged recently from the “first branch.” Others have demonstrated an independent capacity for analysis that is impressive by historical standards. This article introduces a practitioner symposium of three related works on policy analysis for Congress, with appropriate commentary by a distinguished veteran. It argues that because timing is crucial in the congressional policy process, anticipation and advance preparation are central to the effective use of analysis. The other articles illustrate the stages of advance preparation—of the policy analyst, the congressional environment, and the Member for voting—in the form of case studies.     

Adult Education Policy Formation and Implementation: A Global Perspective

Adult education policies around the world during the post-World War II period owe a debt to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) both in their conception and implementation. Four UNESCO-sponsored world conferences on adult education (UNESCO, 1949; UNESCO, 1963; UNESCO, 1972; UNESCO, 1985) and several other conference reports and surveys (Bhola, 1989b; Lowe, 1982; UNESCO, 1976) have contributed to adult education as an area of study, as a progressive movement in its own right and in developing adult education throughout the Third World, an area of special, but not exclusive, interest in this paper.     

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.     

STAR METRICS and the Science of Science Policy

STAR METRICS is a data platform that is being voluntarily and collaboratively developed by U.S. federal science agencies and research institutions to describe investments in science and their results. It initially emerged as a result of reporting requirements associated with the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; it has developed in response to a recognized need to begin to systematically document federal investments in science and their immediate and long‐term results. The eventual goal is to draw information from existing data on scientific and economic activities as well as from research institutions' and federal science agencies' systems to provide data that can be used for a more scientific analysis of science investments and their outcomes.     

A Veteran's View of Science Education Today

Science education in our schools is fundamentally the same today as it was fifty years ago and the scientific method has not really changed. Good science teaching is defined as the never‐ending search for evidence, for objective data, which leads to truth, and the search for truth should be at the heart of education in all subjects at all levels, and teacher training should address this objective view point. Science in our schools is watered down with derivatives such as environmental education. Steps should be taken to increase the level of science content knowledge in schools and science teacher education. Additionally, the rules of the open market should be invoked to give science teachers the latitude to offer their services as other providers of professional services do, and receive compensation greater than they would as regular full‐time teachers. These issues are discussed with implications for policy.     

Policy Studies And Political Science

Studies of "policy" and l'policymakingll have proliferated recently. One reason is the serious policymaking difficulties of American and other Western governments. Earlier political science did not address these problems well because of its concentration on political input processes rather than outputs. Most policy studies either evaluate programs 0' explain cases of policymaking, The approach proposed here, called public policy, does both. Analyses of preferred options are played off against the limitations of process, and vice versa. This conception is illustrated and the problems posed by it are discussed.     

论政策科学的源起

政策科学的源起与现代社会的整体演进存在着高度相关的关系,在政策科学的诞生地———美国,二战结束后,随着经济和社会的进步发展,社会问题日益增多并且不断趋于严重,内部矛盾不断加剧。因此,美国社会所关注的政策问题逐渐由外交、安全等外部问题转向诸如经济与社会发展、分配公平与社会福利、能源与环境保护、社会保障等一系列国内实际问题。这种由关注抽象的价值理念向具体政策问题的转变,一方面反映出二战以来美国政策问题的结构性变化,即政治程度较低的社会问题不断增多,并且在所有政策问题中的地位也渐渐由次要问题变成主要问题;另一方面也使得政府的合法性和权力巩固越来越依赖于它是否有能力制定“好”的公共政策。     

IT WORKERS SHORTAGE: Implications for Education Policy

This article examines the information technology (IT) worker shortage by comparing the rate of salary increase for IT workers from 1995 to 1998 to the rate of inflation for those same years. Findings show that the median salary for IT workers has increased at twice the rate of inflation. Universities and businesses form partnerships to develop innovative products. Continuous innovation has meant that both industry and universities require workers, students and faculty to continuously change their skill sets. At every point as technology changes there is a shortage of the newest combination of required skill sets. A recommendation is made to change education strategy so IT workers have easier access to continuous education via the Internet, funded by their employers.     

Adult Education Policy Between Utopia and Fatalism: A Review Essay of Policy-related Literature

For the purpose of this review essay on international policy-related English language literature on adult education from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, the following models of recent adult education policy options, aiming at social change and redistribution of power under varying conjunctures, have been constructed from the literature available: the revolutionary/transformational model, the humanist model, the rationalist economic model, the post-industrial society model, the new social movement model, and the welfare state model. These models are not exclusive—there may be others—nor are they to be forced into a chronological order. However, they may occur in an interconnected as well as in a dialectic sequence. Choice or application of any or a combination of these models have not brought about redistribution of knowledge or power. Whatever the philosophy, individualist or collective; whatever the approach, selective or campaign; whatever the economy, free market or centrally controlled; whatever the political system, capitalist or socialist; whatever the geographical region, developing or industrialized; indeed, whatever the conditions, the forces resisting an enduring redistributive effect seem to have capacities to reestablish or even reinforce hierarchies challenged by attempts at transformation.     

政策科学:范式革命、假设转换与关系框架

政策科学在创立后形成了一种以科学性为特征的范式,这种范武将敢策活动解读成一种解决政策问题的理性程序.因而自上世纪80年代后期起成为众矢之的,许多学者投身到寻找替代理论的潮流中,由此开启了当前政策科学范武革命的学术丛林景观.本文从突破这种学术丛林的基本假设入手,以关系人假设代替经济人假设,构建了一个敢策过程的关系框架,力图对政策科学理论发展的危机做出具有中国特色的回应.     

Political Science Research Internships and Political Science Education

This article reports on the evaluation of political science research internships and considers their costs and benefits for a political science education. Students indicated high levels of appreciation of the inaugural Political Science Research Internship Unit at the University of Western Australia in terms of its contribution to their personal development and work experience. A substantial number of interns gained insights into the policy process through this form of experiential learning. Many came to appreciate the contingency and the normative dimensions of knowledge in the policy process. Whereas about half of the students found the transition from the seminar room to the policy world difficult, the other half were more successful in applying their theoretical knowledge to practical experiences. The article also indicates how this evaluation informs future course design.     

我国政策科学发展的困顿和突破口

在政策理论工作者、特定政策的制定者和研究者之间,由于没有形成围绕制定高价值政策这一共同目标相互支撑、优势互补的机制和方法论,致使我国政策科学的学科发展陷于困顿之中:现有理论和方法对特定政策制定,对特定政策研究均未显示出应有的指导性;政策理论工作者,特定政策的研究者和制定者各自为政;理论的科学性、合理性、逻辑性和可操作性受到置疑,因此,学科地位未得到公认。走出困顿,奠定学科地位的突破口可简单表述为:通过政策理论工作者、特定政策的制定者和特定政策研究者三方的共同努力,围绕制定高价值政策这一共同的目标,研制一套政策研究和政策制定优势互补、互为支撑的政策制定科学程式,明确程式中各步骤的目的、目标和基本操作思路,各步骤中常用方法(指导性研究方法、研究设计方法、资料收集方法、统计分析方法、质量控制和评估方法等)、主要用途、适用条件和操作要点;各步骤主要难点、表现形式和消除策略、研究者和决策者各方职责、需协调之处和协调思路等。