Franklin Foer has an excellent article in The New Republic about the denigration of the hard sciences and social sciences in the Bush administration.
Foer notes that the advent of government by social scientists began in the Progressive era, and gradually expanded over the course of the two world wars, the cold war and the war on poverty.
In a Masters essay (PDF) I looked at the origins of government by social scientists in the work of Richard Ely, and Sidney and Beatrice Webb.
While I'm mostly supportive of scientifically informed policy making, I argue that its supporters can also slide into believing that politics and government can be reduced to a series of technical questions that can be rationally resolved. In part they can, but ultimately government decisions reward some people and don't reward others (tax policy, anyone?).
What's particularly egregious about the Bush administration is that they say their decisions will be "science based" when they're not, they're ideologically and religiously based. It's not a pretty combination.
Posted by robe0419 at June 25, 2004 03:17 PM