ABSTRACT
From the Bloomington School’s perspective, the social sciences are a worthwhile enterprise not so much in themselves (though knowledge for knowledge’s sake is valued as well); but rather, because they are the conceptual mold and the precondition of the more applied discipline of policy analysis. Policy analysis is the practical facet of theory. Without it, social sciences become an irrelevant game. A distinctive feature of the School is its insistence on the fact that social scientists should try to think not only in terms of creating theory but also of applying it. Given these assumptions, it is no surprise that the evolution of the Bloomington agenda, while rooted in the “Public Choice” movement, has also been linked to the evolution of the emerging disciplines of “public policy” and “public administration.” This chapter will further illuminate the contours of the School by exploring its position within the perimeter defined by “policy analysis” and “Public Choice” while simultaneously projecting them in the broader picture of the evolution of political economy in the last hundred years.
