ABSTRACT
The belief that better use should be made of scientific information in public policy formation appears to be widely shared by policy makers, scientists, and the public alike. The ambiguity accompanying scientific information and information about social values thus constitutes a fundamental obstacle to their effective integration. Improvement of the use of scientific information in policy making therefore faces a considerable obstacle, since quasi-rational judgment is presently being used. Neither policy scientists nor substantive scientists have provided a theory for removing the fundamental obstacles to more analytical use of scientific information that is inherent in present person-dependent methods for transmitting scientific information to policy makers. According to "rational actor" models of decision making, policy makers should select the policy that scientific information indicates best satisfies some set of community preferences. Scientific information is often not only contradictory, but diffuse, obviously judgmental, admittedly uncertain, and thus confusing to scientists as well as laymen.
