SOCIAL-SCIENCE AND THE PUBLIC AGENDA - REFLECTIONS ON THE RELATION OFKNOWLEDGE TO POLICY IN THE UNITED-STATES AND ABROAD

It is tempting to oversell the practical value of applied research. A hard look at the effects of U.S. social science on public policy in ar eas such as active labor market policies (training, job creation, plac ement, etc.), crime prevention, fiscal policy, poverty reduction, and health care reform suggests an inverse relationship between social sci ence consensus and policy and budgetary decisions. Fragmented and dece ntralized political economies (e.g., the United States) foster policy segmentation and isolated, short-run single-issue research-often polit icized and misleading. More corporatist democracies (such as Sweden, N orway, Austria, and Germany) evidence a tighter relation between knowl edge and power in which a wider range of issues is connected, longer-r ange effects are sometimes considered, and research is more often actu ally used for planning and implementation. Even in less hospitable soc ieties, however, social science does make its way in the long run. Fav orable conditions and examples are discussed.