TY - JOUR PY - 2007// TI - Waltzing with a Monster: Bringing Research to Bear on Public Policy JO - Journal of Social Issues A1 - Shinn, Marybeth SP - 215 EP - 231 VL - 63 IS - 1 N2 - 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.

LA - en SN - 0022-4537 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2007.00505.x ID - ref1 ER -