ABSTRACT
Social researchers are apt to deplore the apparent lack of influence which their work has upon the formulation of policy or upon its practical application. They infer that research plays little or no part in the politics of social policy. This conclusion rests upon two assumptions. First, that only the kinds of studies which they undertake count as research and, secondly, that the influence of research is measured by the extent of its direct application. Research is defined more broadly to include modest reviews or the gathering of information and if the indirect political uses to which it may be put are also taken into account, then a different and more complicated picture emerges. This can be illustrated in several ways but the chapter does so by reference to international and intra-national comparisons. Governments may set about investigating foreign experience in more direct ways rather than leaving it to committees of enquiry.
