1. A NOTE ON WARREN'S ANALYSIS FROM WITHIN PARADIGM I.
- Author
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Macdonald, Robert J.
- Subjects
- *
POLITICAL planning , *SOCIAL psychology , *SOCIAL problems , *SENSORY perception , *BELIEF & doubt , *CONFLICT of laws - Abstract
The article presents notes on a research paper related to the analysis of public policy in the U.S. According to the author, this recent analysis is a most useful and needed clarification of a very emotion charged issue within the social sciences. In this study the researcher identifies a certain dialectical process which takes place between paradigms, as perceptions of social problems in terms of Paradigm II are translated into actions which fit the available technology of Paradigm I, and then lose their effectiveness by blaming the victim. The difficulty for the program planner or administrator is that there is no acceptable institutionalized thought structure, specifically, there is no belief-value system on which to base action within the second paradigm. Something more is involved than finding a satisfactory belief-value basis with which to induce a large qualitative change in social structure. The author remarks that within political science the challenge to empiricism for its own sake has been clearly made on the precise ground that much of its research outcomes are socially irrelevant.
- Published
- 1972