Science and Technology Advice for Congress
Editorial Reviews
Review
""In political rhetoric Americans pretend that they and their officials are sufficiently informed to be omincompentant. Since the Jacksonian era, this has been one of the agreed-upon fictions of democracy. But, like many hypocrisies, this fiction encourages unrealistic expectations and disillusionment." -- Richard D. Brown, University of Connecticut, as quoted in Science and Technology Advice for Congress
Book Description
The elimination of the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) in 1995 came during a storm of budget cutting and partisan conflict. Operationally, it left Congress without an institutional arrangement to bring expert scientific and technological advice into the process of legislative decisionmaking. This deficiency has become increasingly critical, as more and more of the decisions faced by Congress and society require judgments based on highly specialized technical information.
Offering perspectives from scholars and scientists with diverse academic backgrounds and extensive experience within the policy process, Science and Technology Advice for Congress breaks from the politics of the OTA and its contentious aftermath. Granger Morgan and Jon Peha begin with an overview of the use of technical information in framing policy issues, crafting legislation, and the overall process of governing. They note how, as nonexperts, legislators must make decisions in the face of scientific uncertainty and competing scientific claims from stakeholders. The contributors continue with a discussion of why OTA was created. They draw lessons from OTA's demise, and compare the use of science and technological information in Europe with the United States.
The second part of the book responds to requests from congressional leaders for practical solutions. Among the options discussed are expanded functions within existing agencies such as the General Accounting or Congressional Budget Offices; an independent, NGO- administrated analysis group; and a dedicated successor to OTA within Congress. The models emphasize flexibility -- and the need to make political feasibility a core component of design.
Science and Technology Advice for Congress
Science and Technology Advice for Congress,M. Granger Morgan,Jon Peha,RFF Press,1891853740,Congress,Congress.,Development - Economic Development,General,Government - Legislative Branch,Office of Technology Assessmen,Office of Technology Assessment,Political Science,Politics / Current Events,Politics/International Relations,Public Policy - Environmental Policy,Public Policy - General,Science and state,Technology and state,United States,United States.,Central government,Environmentalist thought & ideology,Literary Criticism & Collections / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh,USA
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