Problems of Government Utilization of Scholarly Research in International Affairs

Policy-Making: a Conceptual Scheme

“…Hence the former treats data with a view to explanation, where the latter wants the data to serve as a basis for formulating and implementing decisions (Riecken, 1969: 1;Horowitz, 1970: 354). Where the scientist is abstract and, occasionally, even holistic, attending to the particular primarily in order to generalize from it, the practitioner is particularistic and concrete, tolerating generalization only to the extent that it is useful in guiding action in a specific case (Riecken, 1969;Polk, 1965). The result is neatly described by Polk (1965: 243) who proposes that &dquo;the question the 'operator' wants answered is on the order of 'Will they rumble at four o'clock on 97th Street?'…”