Calls for evidence-based policy often fail to recognise the fundamentally political nature of policy making. Policy makers must identify, evaluate and utilise evidence to solve policy problems in the face of competing priorities and political agendas. Evidence should inform but cannot determine policy choices. This paper draws on theories of…

Much of the evidence translation literature focuses narrowly on the use of evidence in the initial policy formulation stages, and downplays the crucial role of institutions and the inherently political nature of policy making. More recent approaches acknowledge the importance of institutional and political factors, but make no attempt to…

Although scholars have proposed many steps to increase evaluation use, there has been little comparative empirical study of whether researchers follow these recommendations and whether specific steps are associated with greater utilization. This study of state legislative evaluators finds that those that regularly meet with stakeholders and…

Discusses attempts to find suitable technology to solve city problems, and to search for ways to heal the breach between planning and politics. (DM)

The history of evaluation utilization in policy making and political features of program evaluation are discussed. A five-part continuum describes the evaluation process. Evaluation practice modifications contribute to real growth in evaluation use in congressional policy making as evaluation research improves the quality of information available…

Reviews the process employed in evaluating the national 4-H program. Holds that the evaluation design was influenced by political, rather than methodological, concerns. Takes examples from the 4-H evaluation to illustrate dilemmas that have emerged in current evaluation process and theory. (Author/GC)

Factors which influence the federal government's policy toward health care include cost, technology, social values, federalism, interest group politics, increased federal involvement, and the current utilitarian attitude toward research. The interaction of these factors results in a complex process of policy formation. For example, when the…

In this paper, social science utilization is studied as an aspect of legislative decision making. The purposes of the paper are to provide a review of political science literature on state legislatures, offer a theoretical framework for interpreting utilization of social science research, apply the framework to interview data, and generate a…

A preliminary review of findings and implications of social science research utilization among government officials is provided. The data come from face-to-face interviews of 204 persons at the upper levels of decision making in the executive branch of the federal government. Section one presents descriptive data on the diversity of the…

This paper explores the politics of education with emphasis on the uses and influences of educational research in educational policy formation. Objectives are to identify information needs of policy makers and to shed light on the educational policy process. The hypothesis is that there is a lack of unity in studies of the political aspects of…

An analysis of the political process by which school systems can be desegregated rests on thepremise that school desegregation is a community decision. The process is documented in Part I by studies of eight non-Southern, big city school systems. Part II presents an analysis of school policy-making. Part III is devoted to desegregation in New…

This paper proposes that consultation meets the definition of an educational technology and examines reasons why it has not been utilized more frequently by practitioners. First, it defines an educational technology and compares consultation to exemplars of educational technologies (such as classwide peer tutoring) and to non-exemplars (such as…

Although social policy makers and researchers assume that research is a major part of the information base upon which policy decisions are made, social policy is by nature incompatible with the organizational structure and time requirements for decision making in an administrative system. Whereas social policy decisions are timed in accordance…

The potential of research which uses the data base from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS) for affecting federal policy is discussed. Currently, social science research is rarely used as a basis for policy decisions. A reason for this is that social scientists profess interest in policy issues, yet are naive in…

This literature review is intended for policymakers and researchers concerned with citizen participation in the educational decision-making process. The study examines (1) the functions of interest groups in social science analysis of the political process; (2) the dominant theories employed in social research on interest group processes; (3) the…