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1 Introduction
Pages 7-20

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From page 7...
... It measures their magnitude and seriousness. Science offers solutions to problems, in some instances extending to policy design and implementation, from improved weapons systems to public health to school reform.
From page 8...
... It is also used for more general topics, such as school reform or deficit reduction, each of which can encompass dozens of discrete policy choices and instruments. And it is used even more broadly to reference policy domains, such as welfare policy or security policy.
From page 9...
... We present a research framework that can improve the scientific understanding of the use of science in public policy. Although some argue that the improved use of science will lead to improved policy choices, that is not our claim here.
From page 10...
... What the social sciences share is their analytic focus on the behavior, attitudes, beliefs, and practices of people and their organizations, communities, and institutions. The social sciences study social phenomena, including social phenomena conditioned and caused by or responsive to matters that are investigated in the natural sciences -- earthquakes, infectious diseases, ocean currents.
From page 11...
... Use occurs in specific kinds of social organizations -- executive agencies, legislatures, or expert committees -- each conditioned by organizational norms, cultures, and patterns of interaction that are studied in sociology, social psychology, and organizational specialties. Use involves political choices in a wide variety of policy settings and thus is a topic for researchers in political science and public administration who investigate policy networks, intermediaries, lobbyists, knowledge brokers, and institutional rule making.
From page 12...
... But we emphasize that the responsibility extends to many policies that address natural conditions, when the policy intends, anticipates, or will be affected by changes in human behavior and social structures. The second responsibility of the social sciences is to focus their formidable array of methods and theories on understanding how social and natural scientific knowledge is used as evidence in the policy process.
From page 13...
... That view -- which could be found as well in the early 20th century among English new liberals and European Christian and social democrats -- held that modern knowledge of society, grounded in the new social sciences, could generate useful policy ideas based on putatively objective and factual bases. Henig (in press)
From page 14...
... It is descriptively informative in the sense that it occurs whenever scientific evidence enters into political deliberations about policy options, and this occurs much more regularly than the apolitical, narrowly focused activities characteristic of evidence-based policy. We support this assertion throughout this report, starting below in the section on democratic theory.
From page 15...
... It follows that use of science as evidence can never be a purely "scientific" matter; and, it follows that investigating use cannot exclusively focus on the methods and organizational settings of knowledge production or on whether research findings are clearly communicated and how. POLICY MAKING IN A REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY Rigorous investigation of how science is used in the United States has to start with the principles and realities of the nation's democratic politics.
From page 16...
... In fact, political principles, such as the first amendment, are designed to promote forceful value expression. The neoconservative critique of the social welfare state blended scientific and normative arguments.
From page 17...
... Democracy rests on the obligation of rulers to give reasons for policies. It is not acceptable to say "Fight this war or pay this tax because I am your ruler and I say so." The obligation to provide reasons generally involves explaining that a given policy will prevent a social harm or advance a desired public welfare goal -- such as why one public health intervention rather than another saves lives, why security practices are needed to protect against terrorism, or why increasing teacher salaries will improve educational outcomes.
From page 18...
... Advocates on the left, who might otherwise have defended charter schools as a progressive public-sector reform, opposed them in making "a tactical decision to fight the battle on this market versus pubic education ground" (Henig, 2009, p.
From page 19...
... Chapter 4 presents a research framework, briefly summarizing selected concepts and research fields -- especially related to practical reasoning, cognitive and social psychology, and systems thinking -- for their application to deepening understanding of how science interacts with policy. The final chapter explains who needs to do what to advance the research framework outlined in Chapter 4.


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