Speculates on the contributions social science research can make to the field of domestic policy. Defines three approaches to applied social science: analysis, evaluation, and demonstrations. Recommends that present day social scientists give more attention to institutions and especially to the links between institutional and behavioral change.…

Discusses research which focused on two topics: research conducted for the evaluation of major governmental social programs, and competitive public contracting as the instrumentality for bringing about mobilization of specific resources for that purpose; the need to evaluate public programs has been a major source of expanding demand for social…

Noting that one of the major ways in which social science can be utilized by society, it is stated, is through the application of experimental method to analysis of social problems, this article explores the organizational and institutional conditions under which social experimentation might be most effectively utilized for the benefit of society.…

Deliberations about social policy often center on estimates of harm or benefit generated by different interest groups. Problems in what is measured and how it is measured are illustrated by a discussion of research into sexual abuse and rape. Advocacy research is an unreliable foundation for social policy formation. (SLD)