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Science and Public Policy: Shotgun Wedding or Marriage Made in Heaven?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2017

Otto Doering
Otto Doering*
Affiliation:
Dep. Agric. Econ., Purdue Univ., W. Lafayette, IN 47907
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Abstract

Scientists, above all others, approach public policy believing it to be scientifically rational—as it has been portrayed by the Good Government Movement, the League of Women Voters, and Mark Twain. Today, the problem is that public policy does not appear rational to scientists. While there is great opportunity for scientific input, neither the policy process nor the most influential policy input is necessarily scientifically rational. To understand the relationship of science to policy, one has to look at how the public views science today, the style of policy, the style of science, and how the policy process may have been captured by “irrational” interests. Only then can a realistic marriage be made between science and policy.

Keywords

History of science and governmentrole of science
Type
Symposium
Information
Weed Technology , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , December 1994 , pp. 875 - 877
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 Weed Science Society of America 

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References

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