ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews how three Science Advisers encountered and used “political” concerns such as regionalism, quick-fix solutions, bureaucratic maneuvering and patronage. It discusses briefly some “failures” of the science advising process in the sense that the advisers were not successful in persuading their advisee, the President of the United States. The politicians had to deal with messy concerns such as regional politics, short-term “brush fires,” patronage, and bureaucratic maneuvering, including allocation politics within the Executive branch. The Science Development Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) was to some extent the product of regional politics. When it comes to government investment in science support, of course, decisions are supposed to be made on the basis of technical capacity and research quality, not regional political considerations. "Patronage"—or the securing of jobs to reward friends or political allies—is usually looked upon as a bad thing.
