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A neglected aspect of policy research has been the systematic analysis of policy impacts. This paper presents a research strategy for measuring policy impacts based upon the principles of experimental design methodology. The strategy is illustrated through the application of a multivariate factorial design to the area of air pollution control. The overall approach is discussed in terms of its general utility for policy impact analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the relationships of information and personal characteristics to vote choice. This paper discusses one aspect of an electoral campaign, a campaign debate, by which information about candidates and their stands on political issues are communicated to the voter. A political campaign permits candidates to communicate to voters. In the process of communicating, the candidates attempt to project favorable images, discuss the issues most helpful to themselves, and manipulate symbols to elicit voter support. The media links candidates to publics by serving as a conduit for informational exchanges. As a conduit the press relies primarily on information provided by the candidates, seeing itself as mirroring events, with the result that the public is provided a bland, uniform, filling, but not satisfying diet of campaign information. In dealing with the supply of information, the usual psychological and sociological variables may be included as modifiers of informational exchanges.

The article proposes an experimental design in policy impact analysis. Economists, sociologists, psychologists and even political scientists have argued that experimental design methodology offers the greatest opportunity for determining what, if any, causal linkages exist between policy action and policy impact. This opportunity rests on the main characteristic of experimental research: prior control by the researcher over the components of his research design. This control is manifested in several ways particularly relevant to impact analysis. Concomitant with this feature of control is the ability to assess the interactive, as well as independent, effects of policy action. This is crucial for impact analysis. Despite various advantages, the acceptance of experimental design methodology is not universal within the area of policy evaluation. The primary criticism centers on the following points: the impracticality of introducing experimental procedures within an applied research setting; the inability of experimental design procedures to evaluate the total policy process; and the limited generalizabiity of experimental results to non-experimental settings.

In this paper, the authors will critically examine a central, though neglected, aspect of political socialization research--the learning concept. Following a discussion of the current status of the learning concept, they propose a research strategy towards the operationalization of the concept in political socialization research and exemplify the approach with a specific learning paradigm adopted from experimental psychology. In a field such as psychology which evidences a long history of research in the study of learning as a general concept, there is a sharp disagreement as to what precisely is meant by "the learning process." Since psychologists differ with regard to the learning process, the unqualified utilization of the concept within political socialization research is highly questionable. Moreover, the failure to explicate clearly the meaning of the learning process in political socialization research has precluded the establishment of the "empirical import" of the concept. Inclusion of the term "political learning" as an integral element in a synthetic mode of discourse requires that the empirical import of the term be established.

Reports on the current opportunities for political science research funding by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Two reasons for optimism about NSF political science research funding; Success of the Political Science Program at NSF; Long-range prospects; Opportunities for NSF funding not yet fully exploited by political scientists; Descriptions of specialized programs and intiatives; List of recently-funded political science projects; More.

This paper discusses several of the problems inhibiting policy evaluation at the state and local levels, as well as the prospects for overcoming them and recommendations for facilitating tasks. Ironically, the very condition demanding program evaluation is the same one negating it, scarce resources. Scarce resources demand that critical decisions are necessary regarding service delivery and cost effectiveness, yet the very data gathering and analysis activities and trained personnel that can inform these decisions are considered too costly to be regular program features. Thus, the most general and pervasive problem surrounding program evaluation is this scarcity of resources. It affects all aspects of evaluation, from the most basic activities of data collection to its measurement and the quality and training of evaluation personnel. State and local program field offices are facing continual dilemmas of denying services to clients or reducing their own administrative costs. The administrative costs are the first to be realized and this de-emphasizes research and development activities for program evaluation. Projects are begun with no evaluation component. If evaluation is later requested, data collection becomes a complicated affair.