ABSTRACT
Accepting a decisionistic-instrumental view of policy research, members of the research and policy communities have repeatedly asked how one might improve the transmissions between research and policy. Belief in policy research, according to this image, appears to rest on the conviction that policy expresses a theory of action that includes: a definition of the problem; a set of possible courses of action; and a goal or goals one seeks to achieve. Evaluative research serves as a management device to ensure that agencies do what is expected of them. Evaluation as control also played a prominent part in the thinking of the social reformers of the early 1960s who helped expand the public role in social programs. Research is used as a weapon in efforts to reform government. The research of the social sciences enters into all stages of policy formation. The problem-solving image holds that the work of policy begins with articulated and self-evident problems.
