The Political Uses of Social Research

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9775358
AutoresHarold Orlans (autor de correspondencia)
Año1971
Volumen394
Número1
Páginas28-35
Fecha de publicación1971-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-7162 • E-ISSN: 1552-3349
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/000271627139400104
OpenAlexW2146770726
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas1

As scientific disciplines, the social sciences are more limited, and hence less useful to government, than either the social science "establishment" or its radical critics contend. However, as a rationale for political action and inaction, and as a mode of political discourse, they have many demonstrable uses. The social sciences are not "value free" but a social enterprise of some complexity. At the same time, the federal government is not a conspiracy but a collection of subsystems loosely brought into coherence through the combined policy functions of the President and the Congress. At one level of government, social scientists contribute an orderly collection of facts and information. At another, they contribute to the interpretation of information. But in this interpretive role, their performance cannot be understood in apolitical terms; several kinds of politics influence their behavior: personal, professional, tactical, and party

Action (physics · Coherence (philosophical gambling strategy · Epistemology · Government (linguistics · Interpretation (philosophy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Computer Science · Law · Political Science Research and Education · Public Administration