A Comparative Political Theory of National Science Provision

Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy 2009This presentation was part of the session : Policy Actors and RelationshipsThis material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. ©2009 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.This paper presents a generalized yet comparative analysis of national science policy. The purpose of the paper is to attempt explanations for observed differences in indicators in the national conduct of science and technology. This contrasts with, but complements, existing descriptive accounts of national science systems. The method of the paper is combined logico-deductive and empirical. A formal model based on comparative politics is produced and analyzed. An empirical set of indicators of national science, based on a superset of OECD nations, is analyzed. Key variables of national governance are identified; a causal analysis is made to determine whether these institutional variables capture actual science and technology outputs. Care is made to produce appropriate comparative statistics given observable differences in the size, labor force, and economic capacity of nations. A discussion is provided of the nature and interaction of policy preferences versus political institutions in the arena of science policy. Recommendations for the United States and Netherlands science policy are made based upon the model