Citation

Shinn M. J. Soc. Iss. 2007; 63(1): 215-231.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1540-4560.2007.00505.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Social scientists who want their research to influence social policy would do well to work with executive branch agencies, especially at state and local levels. Agency administrators are ready to use social science theories and evidence if the social science is brought to them. The article offers six principles for work with administrative agencies: (1) individual leaders matter, (2) timing matters, (3) ideas matter, (4) costs, and who bears the costs matter, (5) government is not monolithic, and (6) one cannot control the uses to which data are put. Working with government, like waltzing with a monster, is not unproblematic, but attending to these principles can help avoid some bruised toes.