need to assimilate a new set of analytic skills dealing with education and negotiation
and mediation, that is, helping to forge policy design and implementation rather than
advise policy makers, which raises another recurring dilemma, impartiality.
- Conclusion
.......................................................................................................................................................................................
The policy sciences were developed in part as the ‘‘policy sciences of democracy...
directed towards knowledge to improve the practice of democracy’’ (Lasswell 1951 a,
14 ) and in recognition of providing ‘‘intelligence pertinent to the integration of
values realized by and embodied by interpersonal relations [such as] human dignity
and the realization of human capacities’’ (Lasswell and Kaplan 1950 , 15 ). These
represent their conceptual bedrock. But, having said this, the world has surely
changed since the early 1950 s. With these changes, it would be quixotic to suggest
that the policy sciences as an intellectual orientation have remained somehow
constant. To this end, we have oVered some new approaches that could be readily
incorporated into the body of the policy sciences’ approach.
As we have pointed out, then, some changes are necessary to ‘‘improve’’ the policy
sciences’ processes and the results; stasis is hardly an option. However, to surrender
the hallmarks of the policy sciences’ approach would be tantamount to giving up the
(relevance) candle to satisfy the (Lasswellian)Xame. For these reasons, a continuing
dialogue is necessary to assure that both the candle and theXame will endure and
shed light on their appointed subjects.
References
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DC: Brookings Institution.
Amy,D.J. 1984. Why policy analysis and ethics are incompatible.Journal of Policy Analysis and
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Barber,B. 1984 .Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Beam,D.R. 1996. If public ideas are so important now, why are policy analysts so depressed?
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 15 ( 3 : Fall):430 7.
Beierle, T. C., and Cayford,J.J. 2002 .Democracy in Practice: Public Participation in
Environmental Decisions. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future.
Bok,D. 1997. Measuring the performance of governing. Ch. 2 inWhy People Don’t Trust
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the historical roots of the field 53