Science policy implements a social contract. In the US since World War II, this arrangement has amounted to society—through government—giving science both money and relative autonomy while, in return, reaping the practical benefits that inevitably result. The arrangement once may have been appropriate, but it no longer is; we now need a new understanding of how science serves national needs.
Topics
Public policy and governance
REFERENCES
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2.
V. Bush, Science—The Endless Frontier, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (1945, reprinted 1960).
3.
For an extensive critique of the social contract, see D. Sarewitz, Frontiers of Illusion, Temple U.P., Philadelphia, Penn. (1996).
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J. P. Baxter, Scientists against Time, MTT Press, Cambridge, Mass. (1968).
See also G. P. Zachary, Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century, Free Press, New York (1997).
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D. E. Stokes, Pasteur's Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC (1997).
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A. M. Weinberg, Nuclear Reactions: Science and Trans‐Science, AIP Press, New York (1992).
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A. Dupree, Science in the Federal Government: A History of Policies and Activities to 1940, Harvard U.P., Cambridge, Mass. (1957).
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D. S. Greenberg, The Politics of Pure Science, Signet, New York (1967).
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D. Stokes, in Vannevar Bush II: Science for the 21st Century, Sigma Xi, Research Triangle Park, N.C. (1995).
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R. Zare, in National Research Council, Quantitative Assessments of the Physical and Mathematical Sciences: A Summary of Lessons Learned, National Academy Press, Washington, DC (1994).
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National Research Council, Beginning a Dialogue on the Changing Environment for the Physical and Mathematical Sciences, National Academy Press, Washington, DC (1994).
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National Academy of Sciences, Allocating Federal Funds for Science and Technology, National Academy Press, Washington, DC (1995).
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Office of Technology Assessment, Research Funding as an Investment: Can We Measure the Returns? (1986);
Congressional Research Service, Linkages between Federal Research and Development Funding and Economic Growth (1992);
L. N. Stevens, testimony before the Committee on Science, House of Representatives, in Managing for Results: Key Steps an Challenges in Implementing GPRA in Science Agencies, General Accounting Office, Washington, DC (1996);
Business Week, 26 May 1997, p. 166.
18.
R. A. Pielke Jr, submitted to Global Environmental Change;
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© 1998 American Institute of Physics.
1998
American Institute of Physics
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