Abstract: Part of the gle holding together the membership of the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management is a concern about the character and path of public policies. Embedded in this is the professional opinion that analysis will improve the outcomes of deliberations. This issue-the relationship between analysis and development-has been the subject of a long-standing debate that has recently been revived. On the positive side is a simple factual question: Has past research influenced the character of policies (and, maybe, has this influence been benign)? On the normative side are several more questions: How can research be made more useful? Are funding and incentives for research appropriate? And are particular types of research being undervalued and underemployed? These are questions I find interesting from both an academic viewpoint and a viewpoint. They are also issues to which I have returned to in thinking and in practice over a number of years. Here I would like to sketch my reflections on these questions. These should be interpreted as today's views, however, because I find that they continue to evolve.' In my opinion many discussions of this issue, even though carried out by very good analysts and researchers, have really failed to give proper attention to inherent differences in the character of underlying research and to the structure of the policy research market. There are two key elements to the view of the research-policy interaction that I will present here. First, there is not a single homogeneous research market, but instead a series of interdependent markets corresponding to different types of research. While it is common to find some distinction between theoretical disciplinary work and research, not enough attention has been given to the different strands of research. Second, both the demand side and the supply side of
Publication Year: 1990
Publication Date: 1990-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 9
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