Science and social responsibility

Science in the aggregate has not lived up to its promise to work for the benefit of society as a whole. This problem stems from the narrow perspectives that basic and applied researchers typically take to their work. Among the barriers to broadening those perspectives, the most tractable is the myth that the overriding purpose of science in human affairs is prediction; that such predictions are prerequisites for major policy decisions; and that scientific inputs to these decisions are objective and value-free. This article challenges the myth from three standpoints - epistemology, the historical context, and contemporary case studies - as a step toward improving the responsibility and accountability of science to society.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Symposium on New Paradigms for Managing Post-Industrial Societies at the meetings of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, Denver, Colorado, July 14, 1992.     

Reviews

Jerry F. Hough and Merle Fainsod, How the Soviet Union is Governed (An extensively revised and enlarged edition by Jerry F. Hough of Merle Fainsod's How Russia is Ruled). Cambridge, Mass., and London: Harvard University Press, 1979, xiv + 679 pp. £12.00.

Karen Dawisha, Soviet Foreign Policy Towards Egypt. London: Macmillan Press, 1979, 271 pp. £12.00.

Robert O. Freedman, Soviet Policy toward the Middle East since 1970 (Revised Edition). New York, London, Sydney, Toronto: Praeger Publishers, 1978. 373 pp.

Daniel Park, Oil and Gas in Comecon Countries, London: Kogan Page & New York: Nichols Publishing Company, 1979. 240 pp. £15.00.

Avi Shlaim and G. N. Yannopoulos (eds.), The EEC and Eastern Europe. London: Cambridge University Press, 1978. 251 pp. £15.00.

Daniel Tarschys, The Soviet Political Agenda: Problems and Priorities, 1950–1970. London: Macmillan Press, 1979. i + 217 pp. £10.00.

Soviet Society and the Communist Party, edited by Karl W. Ryavec. Amherst, Mass.: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1978. xviii + 220 pp. $15.00.

Richard Stites, The Women's Liberation Movement in Russia. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1978. xxi + 464 pp. $37.50.

Barbara Wolfe Jancar, Women Under Communism. Baltimore, Maryland: John Hopkins University Press, 1978. x + 291 pp. $16.00.

Norman Saul, Sailors in Revolt. The Russian Baltic Fleet in 1917. Lawrence: The Regents Press of Kansas, 1978. xii + 312 pp.

Richard K. Debo, Revolution and Survival: The Foreign Policy of Soviet Russia 1917–18. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1979. xiii + 462 pp. £15.00.

William O. McCagg, Jr. Stalin Embattled, 1943–1948. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1978. 423 pp. $18.95.

Arvind Vyas, Consumption in a Socialist Economy. The Soviet Industrialization Experience, 1929–1937. Foreword by Maurice Dobb. New Delhi: People's Publishing House, 1978. xii + 239 pp. Rs. 50.00.

Alfred D. Low, The Sino‐Soviet Dispute: An Analysis of the Polemics. London: Associated University Presses, 1977. 364 pp. £8.25.

Morris Rothenberg, Whither China: The View from the Kremlin. University of Miami. Monographs in International Affairs, xxi + 310 pp.

Morton Schwartz, Soviet Perceptions of the United States. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978. 216 pp. £8.75.

A. Szymanski, Is the red flag flying? London: Zed Press, 1979. 235 pp. Paperback £2.95.

John Dunstan, Paths to Excellence and the Soviet School. Windsor: NFER Publishing Co., 1978. 302 pp. £9.75.

Leopold H. Haimson (ed.), The Politics of Rural Russia 1905–1914 (Studies of the Russian Insitute, Columbia University). Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1979. x + 309 pp. $19.50/£13.65.

R. W. Seton‐Watson and the Yugoslavs: Correspondence, 1906–1941, Vol. II 1918–1941. Introduction by H. & C. Seton‐Watson. London and Zagreb: British Academy and University of Zagreb, Institute of Croatian History, 1976. 468 pp. + 474 pp. (two books).     

The Struggle for Local Government: Indian Democracy's New Phase

The 73^rd Constitutional Amendment of 1993 giving local governmenta constitutional status introduced new institutions into theworking of Indian democracy through several significant innovations,such as reservations of seats for marginal groups, women, Dalits,and Adivasis; creation of a decentralized planning mechanism;establishment of state election commissions to oversee localelections and state finance commissions to prepare a blueprintfor sharing of state revenues; and institutionalization of thevillage assembly (gram sabha). This article examines the implicationsof these innovations for local government and vulnerable groupsin the context of Indian democracy. It does so within the largerdebate on the capability of political institutions to produceoutcomes and so a new political culture.     

Antecedents of adolescent initiation into stages of drug use: A developmental analysis

The social psychological antecedents of entry into three sequential stages of adolescent drug use, hard liquor, marihuana, and other illicit drugs, are examined in a cohort of high school students in which the population at risk for initiation into each stage could be clearly specified. The analyses are based on a two-wave panel sample of New York State public secondary students and subsamples of matched adolescent-parent and adolescent-best schoolfriend dyads. Each of four clusters of predictor variables, parental influences, peer influences, adolescent involvement in various behaviors, and adolescent beliefs and values, and single predictors within each cluster assume differential importance for each stage of drug behavior. Prior involvement in a variety of activities, such as minor delinquency and use of cigarettes, beer, and wine are most important for hard liquor use. Adolescents' beliefs and values favorable to the use of marihuana and association with marihuana-using peers are the strongest predictors of initiation into marihuana. Poor relations with parents, feelings of depression, and exposure to drug-using peers are most important for initiation into illicit drugs other than marihuana.This research is supported by Grant DA-00064 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and by the Center for Socio-Cultural Research on Drug Use of Columbia University.Revised version of a paper presented at the Conference on Strategies of Longitudinal Research on Drug Use, San Juan, Puerto Rico, April 1976. Authors' names are listed alphabetically.Received Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University in 1960. Current research interests are adolescent socialization, longitudinal approaches to the study of human behavior and psychopathology, and processes of interpersonal influence.Received Ph.D. in sociology from New York University in 1975. Major interest is quantitative sociology.Received Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University in 1975. Current research interests include adolescent socialization and deviant behavior.     

The evaluation of economic development conflict is present: Projects where military investing in health care in el salvador

Increasingly, U.S. policymakers have proposed development projects in areas of the world undergoing rapid, disruptive, and often violent challenges to existing political regimes. The U.S. government typically requires that these projects undergo an economic evaluation before they can be implemented. While benefit-cost theory and practice have made substantial gains over the last 20 years, they are more easily and aptly applied to stable economic and political conditions. This paper raises several issues concerning the theory and practice of benefit-analysis in an environment where there is political instability and military conflict. The discussion is illustrated by reference a proposed health care project in El Salvador. I t concludes summarizing the options available to policy analysts who conduct evaluations in such situations.     

State Rainy Day Funds and Fiscal Crises: Rainy Day Funds and the 1990–1991 Recession Revisited

The recession of the early 1980s prompted many states to establish budget stabilization (rainy day) funds. Initial examinations of rainy day funds find a limited impact by the funds in alleviating fiscal stress. In this article, we propose an enhanced model of rainy day fund impact. Using data from 48 states for the 1990–1991 recession, our analysis indicates that the presence of a number of structural factors and the maintenance of generally large balances in other funds entering recession helps to alleviate fiscal stress when a state's economy is in recession.