ABSTRACT
Social science is a blanket term covering many activities and several discrete and identifiable disciplines. The involvement of social science with public policy has not been uniform and certain areas have grown closer to and more entwined with the policy sector than others. In Western Europe and the USA, economics more than any other social science discipline has gained the ear of the policy-makers, both through its influence in established government agencies such as budget bureaux and treasuries and through formal advisory mechanisms such as the US Council of Economic Advisors. Indeed, political problems are frequently viewed as economic problems to the extent that social variables are often cast misleadingly in economic terms.
