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This article focuses on the interaction between planning-programming-budgeting (PPB) and public policy-making system. PPB is closely related to politics, being strictly constrained by politics, trying a little to change politics, and serving as one of the symptoms of the state of politics. But, after all, not every symptom is a useful starting point for analyzing a complex series of developments and the author, for one, doubt whether PPB is a necessary or useful jumping board into the faster-moving streams of politics. As public policy is a product of complex interactions between a large number of components, similar changes in the output can be achieved through many alternative variations in the components. This means that different combinations of a variety of improvements may be equally useful in achieving equivalent changes in the quality of policy making. This is a very helpful conclusion, because it permits us to pick out of a large repertoire of potentially effective improvements those which are more feasible under changing political and social conditions.

The PRINCE Project is a multidimensional approach to understanding politics and putting that understanding to work in order to accomplish political goals. It relies heavily on a systematic approach to the study of politics. At the same time, it consists partly of devices which can be used by even the most inexperienced student so he can move to his own desired level of skilled political analysis. The approach is flexible enough to allow it to focus on politics at the international, national and local levels and can serve educational, research and policy-analysis functions. This article briefly describes the educational, research and policy-making activities that have been undertaken by the project in recent years.

This article presents information on transactions of the fifth world congress of sociology held during September 2-8, 1962, in Washington D.C. Volume one contains main contributions to the plenary sessions on "The Sociologists, the Policy-Makers and the Public" and "The Nature and Problems of Sociological Theory." The first theme is treated from the point of view of communication between sociologists and policy-makers, and between sociologists and the general public. Papers dealing with the second theme attempt to define the character of sociological explication, to make a historical survey of sociological theories, and estimate their value. The contributors to this volume are, A. Sauvy, D. Chosh, R. Treves, A. Vratusa, R. Weitz, E.C. Hughes, T. Agersnap, F. Fernandes, S. Groenman, J. Hochfeld, R. KOnig, E. Geilner, H. Lefebvre, A.K. Saran and P.A. Sorokin. Volume two, entitled "The Sociology of Development," deals firstly with early stages of growth and contains papers on following topics; new groups, entrepreneurship, the development of a labour market, economic requirements of modem industrialization, urbanization and the traditional work ethos.

Prior to the early 1960s recognition of the political nature of educational policy-making was virtually absent from the political science literature. The landmark article on the political bases for educational policy-making was Thomas Eliot's "Toward an Understanding of Public School Politics.' As the title would indicate, it dealt with policy related to elementary and secondary schools but not with policy related to higher education. The construction of theories on educational politics has been slow, and the work which has been done consists of the description and testing of relatively inexact hypotheses.

American political science recently has been concerned with the construction of general theories of the political system. The intent of this paper is to analyze a basic assumption of these recent theoretical efforts. These efforts are dominated by a particular idea of politics which may be called "the politics of interest." It is the vision of politics as an arena into which individual or group interests enter in some fashion to be dealt with by certain processes and transformed into outcomes, policies, or outputs. The paper examines this idea and its premises, describes the contribution which the idea of a "science of politics" makes to maintaining its dominance and indicates the limitations which it imposes on political science in general and on political theory in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to describe and evaluate the quarterly national income and product accounts of the United States (to be referred to henceforth as N.I.P.). The historical development of these accounts is reviewed first. Next, a summary of the statistical methodology underlying them is provided. An analysis of the errors to which they have been subject follows. An attempt is then made to define the area of their usefulness. Finally, suggestions for their improvement are formulated. The most general conclusions are as follows: 1. The quarterly N.I.P. estimates were developed in close response to an urgent need for them in economic analysis and policy formulation. Their development was a gradual process covering about two decades in which experience gained at one stage suggested improvements and extensions for the next. 2. The quarterly figures are based on abundant data sources. To be sure, the information is not as comprehensive as that available for the preparation of the annual estimates, but we are dealing only with differences in degree — there is no sharp contrast. 3. The series are subject to a considerable margin of error. There is bias in some of them — the initial estimates tend to be too low; and quite apart from bias they differ from the revised figures. 4. The margin of error attaching to the statistics disqualifies them from serving as precision instruments, but they are indispensable as a systematic framework for the order-of-magnitude analysis of the major forces determining the short-run movements of the economy. At present, the outstanding handicap in such analysis is not statistical error, but the inadequacy of economic theories and of our ability to test them. 5. The opportunities for mechanizing estimating techniques are assessed; the work on seasonals is discussed in this context; and a thorough investigation is proposed of the problems involved in the synchronization of the various components of the accounts. In... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper represents only a few general considerations based upon the set of replicated group-experiments conducted by Organization of Comparative Social Research (OCSR), that may be of some value for future undertakings of the same kind as our OCSR studies. Replication of an experiment in different cultural settings tends to accentuate some problems pertaining to empirical testing of social psychological theory in general.The crucial process of translating a single hypothesis into experimental terms is briefly considered. The difficulties involved depend upon the way we phrase our hypothesis; the more operational its language, the easier will be its translation into experimental manipulations and measurements. In extreme cases, when concepts are defined in terms of detailed operations such translation becomes superfluous. If our ultimate aim is to establish a body of general social psychological theory, however, strictly operational anchoring may be a very dubious procedure. A survey of current contributions toward empirically established social psychological theory therefore by and large seems to support a more daring and flexible approach.

The present paper discusses and illustrates some of the interpretative and methodological problems involved in replicated cross-national research by describing limited aspects of the set of replicated experiments conducted by the Organization for Comparative Social Research in Belgium, England, France, Germany, Holland, Norway and Sweden. Rather than repeating this material, we shall attempt to consider a single, key question of replicated research, if there are differences in the results of replicated experiments, how are such differences to be interpreted? Though systematic replications have been unfortunately rare in the social sciences, a sufficient number of such studies have accumulated to give us some experience with the interpretative problems involved in replication. When the results of replicated researches have been similar, the interpretation is usually clear and straightforward. Reproducibility has been demonstrated and, if the subject populations or the design of the experiment has been allowed to vary, there is evidence for the generalizability of the hypotheses involved. When the results of replicated researches have differed, however, interpretation has usually been exceedingly ambiguous.

The article focuses on institutional growth of policy sciences. Policy Sciences is quite a broad field. Systems analysis applications of operations research and management sciences to policy issues, planning, systems engineering, social indicators and social problem mapping, parts of public administration and organization theory, parts of political science, all these and other disciplines are closely related with policy sciences. This paper is regarded as a preliminary survey, which identifies only some of the relevant activities particularly in the United States.

The article announces the international contest entitled "The Social and Political Thought of Luigi Sturzo" by the Luigi Sturzo Institute in Rome. A sum of four million Italian lire will be awarded to the best paper and it will be published in a journal. Interested students of any nationality may compete and submit their works written either in Italian, English, French or German. The submitted piece must bear the author's identification or pseudonym on the title page and must be sealed in an envelope containing its full name and address. All entries must reach the secretariat office in five typewritten copies not later than June 30, 1969.

Scaling analysis is based on a geometric metaphor. This workshop paper examines how our understanding of the metaphor affects our use of scaling. Instances which appear to be multidimensional are shown to be unidimensional under other scaling models. Conversely, some apparently unidimensional cases are found to be better described as multidimensional. Particular attention is given to the difference between multidimensional scaling and factor analysis. The philosophical implication of our dependence on the definition of unidimensionality is that scaling seeks only partial images of a real world that may be fundamentally unknowable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional wisdom on the acquisition of Congressional influence is that "those who go along, get along," that is, that the system favors "responsible," moderate, deferential, accommodative legislators who place goals of institutional harmony above personal political or policy objectives. State legislative analysts have given the subject little attention, though the leading work seems to accept the Congressional view. This paper reports an empirical study of this proposition based on a questionnaire sent to legislators in four large industrial states. Respondents were divided into nonprogrammatics, those who basically comply with the conventional wisdom's requisites for success, and programmatics, those who place a higher priority on policy goals. The results basically confirm the conventional wisdom, but not nearly to the degree to which most students of legislative behavior would expect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses problems of concept development, utilization, and modification in political research. Though lacking a paradigm, political scientists still must develop concepts as guides to data collection-essentially an exercise in "doing before knowing." Three cases of concept development are introduced: concepts for general understanding, concepts for research design, and classification of empirical findings. Each of these cases is illustrated from the author's research-with special emphasis on conceptual development and modification for analysis of air pollution policy action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional information designs are tools for decision makers at subnational levels; their principal purpose is to improve the dialogue between the decision maker and the analyst as a means of improving the quality of policy decisions. This paper first examines key characteristics of regional accounts and regional information systems of relevance primarily at the state or province level. Then the nature and scope of regional decisions are reviewed with a view of delineating the problems encountered in developing systematic regional information to help make those decisions. Both policy and program decisions are considered in terms of scanning the horizon for potential opportunities and problems and of identifying preferred solutions to the problems. Finally, one regional information design is sketched out which classifies in an orderly fashion the environmental and program information useful in regional decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the methods used for producing comparable data in the Organization of Comparative Social Research seven-nation attitude study. The design of the OCSR attitude study called for a set of equivalent research operations in each of the seven nations. The method adopted was to use a set of pre-tests or model studies that would permit the national teams to test the equivalence of operations that would be appropriate for the ultimate data gathering and processing in each of the countries, and, at the same time, develop more nearly similar research facilities. It was intended that at the end of the series of pre-tests the teams would be staffed and equipped in comparable fashion and that the questionnaire and content analysis procedures, though perhaps modified to meet situational country demands, would be producing equivalent data. The preceding article affords some basis for judging the success of these efforts. To the extent that it is possible to demonstrate consistency among countries in the complex relationships within the attitude data, there is evidence that equivalent data have been produced.

The author asserts that among themes of increasing concern in comparative policy studies is resource allocation. This theme has a certain obvious interest, academic and practical, relating, as it does, to the whole scheme of priorities, incentives and disincentives, variously characteristic of any society and every conceivable form of human organization. A problem of central importance in the comparative study of resource allocation is the development of theoretical insights which would guide the conduct of research.

Given that one function of social science should be to furnish guidance for public policy, the results of social science research have been disappointing. Generally, social science theories have been too highly abstract to be relevant to real world issues and empirical findings too remote for a systematic view of society. As a result, therefore, governments particularly the federal government have had to implement policy measures at both macro and micro levels on the basis of scanty information about the expected effects of these policies.

In the past decade political scientists have evinced considerable interest in investigating the correlates of public policy. Political scientists are now quite familiar with the vast number of studies utilizing multivariate correlational analysis to investigate the factors influencing policy formulation by state and local decision making bodies. The central question of this research has focused upon the relative contribution of political versus environmental factors in explaining the variability of policy outputs across diverse governmental jurisdictions.

This paper sums an attempt to channel professional knowledge, intuitive thinking, intentionality, and the subjective values of authorities in public administration and related fields toward the prediction of a paradigm of future public administration. A Delphi exercise was used as the means for obtaining the best judgments from scholars about the future scope and methods of public administration from 1973 to 1990. This Delphi study reveals the existence of a reasonable degree of agreement on the future of public administration. However, two generally different patterns of opinion were observed among the scholars of contemporary academic public administration: (1) conventional public administration and (2) management and policy sciences. We will first attempt to summarize and analyze the findings of the Delphi exercise and then will suggest speculations for further study. The notion of "identity crisis" allows for several possible interpretations. It might mean that an individual is experiencing something of an emotional crisis connected with the seeming loss of identity of that intellectual-professional realm in which he has such a large stake.

This article, after considering the need for effective techniques for policy evaluation, develops a model for the evaluation of urban public policy. The model consists of five separate components and includes a time variable. The final section of the paper uses the component model and resulting variables to evaluate two hypothetical urban programs. The problems encountered in single- and multi-program evaluation attempts are discussed. Finally, conclusions are drawn concerning the limitations and utility of evaluation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the implications suggested by several recent studies in comparative public policy, this article examines the impact of the structure of intergovernmental relations on the patterns of distribution of educational funds. The fundamental hypothesis underlying this analysis is that differences in this structure, and in particular the distinction between federal and unitary systems of government, are systematically related to differences in distribution across and within nations. The variations in total educational allocations among eighteen nations in Europe and North America are considered in order to discover whether the aggregate funding of education, relative to a nation's wealth, is related to the structure of intergovernmental relations. Then, in a more intensive analysis, the international patterns of distribution are compared in four federal and four unitary systems. This analysis suggests that there is a significant difference between the two types of system in the degree to which educational policy outputs equalize the territorial disparities in wealth and effect a redistribution of funds within the nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four theories for explaining public policy decisions are briefly presented. The theories are applied to the question of the location of Norwegian district colleges and universities (location by county, scope and timing). Eleven operational models provide the link between theory and data. The conclusion is that the legal-bureaucratic theory best explains the location decisions. This structural theory works better than the three behavioral ones. It is argued that this shows how norms of equity and justice constitute the main constraints on these decision processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the making of Narcotic Laws in the U.S. The new New York State laws regarding narcotics and other drugs, laws that the Federal Government regards favorably, have called for changes in our attitudes and policies regarding narcotic addiction, the flourishing business associated with it, and even addicts themselves. The new hard line has stirred vigorous debate among workers in the field, and the popular and professional media of journals, magazines, newspapers and even television. It would be pleasant though self deluding to imagine that from this debate reasonable plans and policies will emerge. It hardly ever happens that way. It should go without saying that the basis of public policy should rest on the foundation of dispassionate and thorough amassing of data and be based upon the rational analysis of that data combined with the leavening of wisdom. But in the real world policy makers and those who implement policy and programs are not made in the image of Plato's philosopher-king. We forget the importance of cultural and social beliefs, ideology, values, and even simple coincidental timing of various events or "historical accident."

The article presents a case study on the analysis of inter-industry relationships in Turkey. It discusses the effects of inter-industry linkage on industrial performance by using an extension of the conventional Rasmussen technique to accommodate both final demand repercussions and explicit policy objectives. Turkey was chosen as a case study since the problems it currently faces are representative of those encountered by many developing countries. The results provide a useful quantitative indication of the severity of the constraint imposed by the structure of the economy on the government's ability to attain desired policy objectives, and also indicate the chief areas of policy conflict and compatibility.

The article provides an analysis of policy options for rural development. It discusses the styles of rural development and the salient features of the green revolution. The article argues that technical change in rural areas leads to greater specialization and division of labor and to greater social differentiation. It takes into account the fact that conflict of interest arises not only between the landed elite and the peasantry as a whole, but also within the peasantry.

The article reports that a final encouraging line of inquiry examines the linkages between individual tax behavior and public tax decisions. This approach examines citizen and policy-makers pursuing their rational self-interest, decision-making procedures, and their consequences for tax policy. Policy scientist Ralf E. Miner, has explored these consequences and discouraging democratic implications for public property tax reform. Other political scientists have viewed politics of property taxation as a series of game with policy influenced by individuals pursuing their own rational strategy.

The article reports that the policy studies which are intended to test or enrich areas of social science theory call for a different focus and make more demands on measurement. Theory is not usually limited to the particular variables most relevant to an evaluation of a particular program. Even a limited set of propositions related to learning theory is much broader than the specific characteristics of a particular education program and its effects, even though that program is based on some more general conception of how people learn.

The article reports that the foreign policy issues associated with the worldwide growth of civilian nuclear power industries, and of peaceful uses of nuclear energy generally, have just recently begun to prick the imagination of a broad cross section of the foreign affairs community. Some excellent ground work has already been done. However, most conceptualizations of this interface between nuclear technology and foreign affairs have tended to establish certain technological givens and then postulate the likely or unlikely impact upon international political behavior.

The article reports that the principal military input into the foreign policy process normally comes from the four man Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in the U.S. This article also analyzes the role of the JCS in this process by discussing three interrelated areas, the sources of the Chiefs foreign policy preference, the manner in which these preferences are conveyed to the key decision-makers, and the impact of the JCS upon foreign policy. Most of the data for this analysis comes from interviews conducted with thirteen retired Chiefs in the period from 1968 through 1964.

The article reports that a sometimes neglected cost of secrecy in the conduct of the U.S. foreign affairs is that it can hinder, rather than expedite, the effective formulation of policy. A comprehensive evaluation of the utility of foreign policy-making in camera would weigh this cost, along with the cost in democratic accountability, against the benefits of secrecy often postulated. Hence this brief article explores only a fraction of the issue, the ways in which secrecy can detract from effective policy-making.

This article focuses on the sources and limitations of data in criminal justice research. In order to systematically pursue the many important issues which have been raised in this symposium volume, it is important for researchers to become aware of the various sources of data bearing upon criminal justice systems, the range of data obtainable from such sources and some of the limitations or qualifications which must be seriously considered if these data are to be meaningfully employed. The existence of multiple data sources and the limitations of data obtained from such sources suggest three useful research strategies. The first is to attempt to obtain multiple measures of desired data from multiple sources, and particularly to focus attention upon cases of conflicting data.

This article focuses on public attitudes toward the criminal justice system. Studies which investigate public attitudes toward the criminal justice system are concerned primarily with the level of public support enjoyed by the programs, actors, and institutions of the legal system. These attitudes and levels of support may have profound implications for public policies in these areas. The research findings suggest that public evaluation of criminal justice institutions is based on rational perceptions of performance from a uniquely individual perspective.

This article focuses on political theory, policy analysis, and the insoluble problems of criminal justice. Political science can make a major contribution to criminal justice evaluation in three areas. It can measure the impact and consequences of government programs on securing formal objectives. Policy analysis can measure, although with great difficulty, the impact of programs on informal objectives the unwritten agenda of policy, such as income and budget redistribution. The adoption of comprehensive goals is a political function and not the professional function of the social scientist.

Ever since political scientist David Easton first introduced systems theory to political science, most policy analysts have utilized his five-fold scheme for studying the policy-making process; input, conversion, output, feedback and environment. Such diverse areas as international relations, public administration, comparative government and domestic policy analysis have made use of the theoretical construct. Scholars in one policy area do not appear to take advantage of or even be aware of the findings in other areas. There has been an overemphasis on the conversion process at the expense of other parts of the system, most notably post conversion.

Policy relevance depends on incorporating in the model a correct understanding of the role of the decision-maker and the nature of the decision-making process. The general requisites for both correct theory arid policy relevance must derive from certain realities like, the decision-maker is always optimizing something. He must have a full and accurate representation of his environment. He cannot consider himself as part of the problem or the solution and he must act. Though these are "practical' criterions, they are also facts of an intellectual order. Builders and sellers of policy models must take them into account if their products are to be relevant.

The article presents that the broad implications of the socio-economic interpretation which simultaneously emphasizes environmental determinants and de-emphasizes political factors demand a serious evaluation of the methodology on which the interpretation is based. Before one fully accept this view of policy making, it must be certain that the environment is a main determinant of outputs. From a methodological point of view the socio-economic interpretation involves quantitative analysis, most particularly correlational analysis.

The article presents that several statistics are available to test the impact of public policy when the research is cast in the quasi-experimental, interrupted time-series context. Each of these statistical tests is appropriate for a specifically formulated hypothesis. That is, some tests focus upon intercept differences and some upon differences of slope. For all tests, it is assumed that the change point is established independent of the data. However, if a researcher has sound theoretical reasons for expecting the treatment, innovation, or intervention to have a delayed impact, a number of post-intervention observations may be included as pre-change data points.

The article presents the purpose to describe some basic methodological concepts and techniques for finding an optimum mix of public policies under scarce resources and for finding an optimum level at which to operate a given public policy which has a hill-shaped relation with benefits or a U-shaped relation with costs. Concepts and techniques are largely taken from the search and benefit-cost analysis. Since that literature, however mainly deals with examples from business, engineering, one has to reason by analogy and sociological policy problems.

The article presents the use of casual thinking and causal techniques in policy studies. Even where the actual estimation cannot be performed, a causal style of thinking is still beneficial for theory building and hypothesis generation. Path analysis procedures are important for they enable one to move beyond mindless correlation analysis and the simple estimation of direct effects, the basic output of ordinary regression. Rather, path analysis allows the investigator to examine the causal processes underlying his observed relationships and to get a handle on the relative importance of alternative paths of influence.

The article presents the purpose to demonstrate the appropriateness of time series regression applied to the policy process. It begin by arguing its theoretical value, then discuss the few extant examples of such research, and end with the methodological problems involved. The more fundamental distinction is that policy-making is a process, it occurs over time within a governmental system such as a state. It does not occur across states, hence, the cross-sectional regression equation or correlational analysis does not reflect the process from which the data is gathered.

The article reports that the need for a more reliable means of measuring the output of governmental services at all levels of government is a critical problem for all policy analysts. It is particularly important at the municipal level, such outputs and their variations have the most direct citizens, and where sophisticated measurement and evaluation capabilities are least likely to be found. The article also describes the need which is easily documented by reference to reports of service breakdowns contributing to the exodus of middle-class residents from central cities.

The article presents a comparison of some radically different approaches to policy analysis. The production and handling of information has become increasingly important in society today. The authors feel that the current state of organization theory, particularly its relation to policy analysis, is in great need of some fundamentally new kinds of questions and challenges. Put slightly differently, the authors believe that the future course of policy analysis is in need of some radical new directions. Almost by definition, these new directions can only be gotten by stepping outside of the usual modes of thinking by going to fields of inquiry, like the philosophy of science, which traditionally have been conceived to be far removed from the concerns of both organization theory and policy analysis. If the success of any field is ultimately tied to the radical ideas and paradigms that it is willing to entertain, then the concern of this article is with the most speculative and wideranging hypotheses that can be formulated by looking at organization theory and policy analysis from some radically different perspectives.

The article has argued that concern among English academics regarding the future of academic freedom in the U.S. is realistically based on the cultural, social and economic conditions of modern Great Britain. These conditions have resulted in a genuine dilemma over policy and practice in higher education. The article has looked at the problem exclusively from the standpoint of academic freedom and suggested that in so far as the English system approximates increasingly in organizational pattern to the U.S. system, it will be accompanied by a decrease in academic freedom. It has not discussed the working of the expert system in the U.S. and have left unquestioned therefore, the harmony attributed to it by sociologists J. Ben-David and R. Collins. It is worth noting, however, that in the U.S., the expert system has generated considerable pressure for reform and amongst some academics, the demand for corporate control in the running of academic affairs. There is at least some evidence, therefore, that academics in the U.S. are attempting to change existing academic arrangements towards what Ben-David and Collins have designated as the elitist system.

Before undertaking comparative policy analysis, one must first be clear of the justification for the inordinately large amount of work required. A variety of reasons are reviewed. In order to make comparisons, one must have a conceptual framework to identify the different parts of the policy process. Data must be placed in a process, as well as located in geographical space. It is also important to consider to what extent differences between policy areas (defence, health care, housing, economic policy, etc) influence the policy process. The issues discussed concern problems that arise in within-nation studies of policy, as well as between nation comparisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses changes to policy making and planning in Great Britain. The author argues for the importance of expertise in policy innovation and notes that many elected officials and executives lack experience in the making of public policy. He connects his argument to the findings of a government committee that studied planning for urban roads and traffic entitled the Buchanan Committee and notes similarities in the goals of policy planning and systems theory. Also discussed is the application of cost-benefit analysis to planning.

The central concern of this article is to explore the possible consequences of crisis-induced stress on those aspects of individual and organizational performance that are most likely to affect processes and outcomes of foreign policy-making. Under the best of circumstances foreign policy issues tend to be marked by complexity, ambiguity and the absence of stability, they usually demand responses which are judged by qualitative rather than quantitative criteria. Most research findings indicate a curvilinear relationship between stress and the performance of individuals and groups. At moderate levels, anxiety can be facilitating, but at higher levels it disrupts decision processes. On the other hand, increasing levels of stress tend to heighten the salience of time and to distort judgments about it. High-stress situations tend to increase selective perception and to impair the ability to discriminate between sense and nonsense, the relevant and the irrelevant. Aside from these effects of stress, there are policy-making under circumstances of crisis-induced stress is likely to differ in a number of respects from decision-making processes in other situations.

The article examines several methods in which the social sciences contribute or could contribute to the formulation and choice of the finalities and goals of national policy. Most modern countries work out and adopt national development plans or special programs in which objectives that they are endeavoring to reach within a specific time are stated. Objectives thus fixed are the result of a fairly broad consensus which confers upon them, at least in appearance, an instrumental, that is to say neutral character, in regard to ethical and political considerations. Some authors have commended this neutrality to the point of seeing in it the distinctive feature of the post-industrial societies which may foreshadow the future. The study suggests that the role played by social scientists should not be considered as opposed but rather as complementary. The basic contribution of the social sciences consists in raising the level of general culture and the understanding of the social universe. The relationships between social scientists, public or private bodies supporting research and the general public condition the impact of the social sciences on guiding national policy.

The article discusses that survey research methods provide the only means to collect and analyze information for a wide range of purposes of both scholarly research and policy making for nation-building. This notion is recognized by scholars, government officials, and commercial interests in the developing countries. It also provides an overview of the major issues involved in conducting a survey or a research in the developing countries. The analysis of materials has three types of bias including sampling, measurement, and interviewer bias.

The United States does not come readily to a national family policy. Many national decisions and activities influence family relationships. Family policy is used here, however, to mean consensus on a core of family goals, towards the realization of which the nation deliberately shapes programs and policies. The United States may now conceivably be in the first stages of developing a national family policy. A look at the conflicting goals or traditions that the country has had will provide a basis for proposing, and illustrating, some generalizations about the development of national policies affecting families in the United States. The study reviews a number of deep-rooted traditions of the United States, which have influenced the development of policies affecting families. At least one tradition, that government should intervene as little as possible in social and economic affairs, has undergone change. Affluence and the experience of other countries are also likely to alter the types of policies that one shall see in the future. Individuals find themselves valued in their families in a way that is becoming increasingly rare in other institutions.