ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the policy process. In 2005, the National Research Council concluded that much research was not suited to the policy process. Among other failings, it does not always account for the dimensions of power and ideology, presumes a simplified decision-making model, and surmises that findings can be applied directly to policy. Research remains important, but not in any formulaic or idealized sense. For researchers to affect policy, they must know the processes by which laws are made. State legislators provide an insider’s view of how the policymaking world operates and the way that research flows through the process. One of the authors, who worked on national welfare reform in the Clinton administration, highlights the potential and pitfalls of research use in the real world. When the cultures of the research and policy worlds are compared, ten observations emerge that are obvious to insiders but sometimes surprising to outsiders: 1. policymaking is a more rational process than it appears; 2. taking the politics out of policymaking is not possible, nor should it be; 3. error-free decisions are expected despite the pace and pressures; 4. policymaking functions on personal relationships; 5. a full-time opposition guarantees gripping dynamics; 6. policymaking is fluid and unpredictable; 7. policymakers wrestle with problems ranging from the wee to the wicked; 8. policymaking is an incredibly complex undertaking; 9. values should not be underestimated as policy drivers; and 10. policymaking favors the status quo.
