POLITICAL CONDITIONS MOTIVATING LEGISLATORS' USE OF POLICY INFORMATION |
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| Authors: | David J. Webber |
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| Affiliation: | DAVID J. WEBBER is Assistant Professor of Political Science at West Virginia university with an interest in policy analysis and the use of pollcy research by policymakers. In addition to several theoretical articles on knowledge utilization, he recently has completed an empirical study of legislators' use of policy research. |
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| Abstract: | While "research utilization" literature has focused on the limited use of policy research by policymakers, there has been l i t t l e attention directed at legislators1 use of policy research o r the importance of the decisionmaking context in explaining policy research use.
Relying on the research utilization literature and the legislative behavior literature, this paper examines the legislative setting as it relates to policy information use, and it outlines the conditions under which policy information might be used by legislators. Specifically, two types of legislator information searches are discussed–the constituent service search and policy formulating search. While there are many obstacles to policy information use–including cognitive and organizational ones–this paper focuses only on political conditions and political obstacles relating to legis- lators' use of policy information. |
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