ABSTRACT
Expertise in economics, demographics, statistics, sociology, and other social sciences is assumed to be necessary for modern governance. In the mid-nineteenth century, the attempt to establish "social science" in the United States as a method of scholarly inquiry and social improvement intertwined with efforts to use social research and politics together. This chapter examines institutions that grew up alongside but separate from the formal machinery of government— independent policy research organizations—at the turn of the century. Following theorists and historians of "corporate liberalism", the chapter views proto-think tanks as the politically active wing of a larger professional managerial class. Challenging the legitimacy of mass politics in municipal affairs, reformers thought that business and expertise should have a leading voice in the way cities were run, and preferred to see city governments as business operations removed from popular control. The emerging professions of accounting, administration, and social work were also key participants in municipal finance reform.
