This book presents a lively retrospective account of a career as an inner and outer in American government and academe by a social scientist who has spent many years conducting evaluation studies of what works—and what doesn’t work—in domestic public affairs. It uses rich histories of prominent policy issues and descriptions of major studies of welfare and job programs to bring to life crucial questions about how social science can best serve social policy. This is a new, substantially updated, and expanded version of a book published by Basic Books over a decade ago.
Richard P. Nathan writes about the real politics of social science research in a style for both practitioners and students of American government. Reviewing the earlier version of this book, James Q. Wilson said Nathan ‘summarizes in plain English what he has learned about how to evaluate public policy. It is an important book for a political system that may have wearied of adopting programs simply because they make us feel good or serve ideological ends.’ Robert Reischauer, President of The Urban Institute, commented, ‘Nathan’s book is essential reading for policymakers who must look for ways to identify efficient government programs.’
Table of Content
Foreword
Michael J. Malbin
Preface to the New Edition
I. INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1 Applying Social Science to Government
The Point of View of This Book
The Role of Applied Social Science
Endnotes
Chapter 2 Optimism and Disillusionment
Applying Macroeconomics
The Planning-Programming Budgeting System
Demonstration and Evaluation Research
Doubts Arise
Other Views
Demise of the PPB System
Assessing Demonstration and Evaluation Research
Endnotes
II. DEMONSTRATION RESEARCH
Chapter 3 The Nature of Demonstration Research
The Vocabulary of Demonstration Research
The Negative Income Tax Demonstrations
Other Income Maintenance Demonstrations
Demonstrations of Service-Type Programs
Endnotes
Chapter 4 Hurdles of Demonstration Research
Selection Bias
The Null Hypothesis
Contamination
Relations with Program Operators
Quality and Consistency Treatment
Cost and Quality of Data
Treatment of Human Subjects
The Uncertainty of Cost-Benefit Analysis
Conclusion
Endnotes
Chapter 5 Welfare Demonstration Studies
Supported Work
Results Focus on Welfare
Implications for Welfare Reform
MDRC’s Work/Welfare Demonstrations
Endnotes
III. EVALUATION RESEARCH
Chapter 6 The Nature of Evaluation Research
The Federalism Barrier Reef
Scientific Implications
Endnotes
Chapter 7 Evaluating the California GAIN Program
The GAIN Process
The MDRC Evaluation
The Research Challenge
Discoveries in the Implementation Process
Endnotes
Chapter 8 The 1999 and 1996 National Welfare
Reform Laws
The Family Support Act of 1988
The Personal Responsibility Act of 1996
Endnotes
Chapter 9 Evaluating the Family Support Act of 1998
with Irene Lurie
Three Strategies
Little Fanfare or Rhetoric
Endnotes
Chapter 10 Evaluating the Personal Responsibility Act of 1996
with Thomas L. Gais
Changes Signals
New Partners
Diversion
Sanctioning
Political Detoxification
Second Order Devolution
Adaptability of the Research Process
Endnotes
Chapter 11 Lessons from Evaluations of Employment and Training Programs
The CETA Public Service Employment Program
The Complementarity Approach
Studies of Individual Impacts under CETA
Endnotes
Chapter 12 The Beginning of the Field Network Evaluation Methodology
The Research Approach
Endnotes
IV. CONCLUSIONS
Chapter 13 Public Policy and Policy Research: Limits and Possibilities
Evaluation Research The Frontier of Applied
Social Science
The Demand for Policy Research
Concluding Comments
Endnotes
Index
About the author
Richard P. Nathan is Director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government.
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