Neutrality and advocacy in policy research

The naive scientism which has dominated federal policy research and most policy research institutes has become a self-blinding dogma, an armchair philosophy which fabricates and distorts reality and has failed at its task of understanding our social and economic problems. Broader approaches are needed which do not artificially isolate and arbitrarily quantify selected factors but examine them in their social and historical context. The vain search for “objectivity” should be replaced by an honest avowal of the interests being served. The sanctimonious assertion of an undefinable “public interest” should be replaced by a definable fairness doctrine setting forth the status of the draft and final reports, project finances, and institute and sponsor controls. Such a doctrine could provide the basis for a new professional consensus and self-regulation in the policy research community, and for new IRS tax regulations governing nonprofit research institutions.