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Identifies a number of challenges the social sciences will have to face in order to play a broader role in formulating international migration policies. This new role is subject to two major processes: globalisation and the universal acceptance of human rights. Both processes affect policy options, albeit from different perspectives. Recent research findings have confirmed that there is no direct link between poverty and South-North migration, despite the fact that many policy recommendations are based on this premise. Suggests that the contradiction between policy recommendations and research findings is due to the weight of economic theory in migration policy. (Original abstract - amended)

Advocates of complexity theory describe it as a new scientific paradigm. Complexity theory identifies instability and disorder in politics and policy making, and links them to the behaviour of complex systems. It suggests that we shift our analysis from individual parts of a political system to the system as a whole; as a network of elements that interact and combine to produce systemic behaviour. This article explores the use of complexity theory in public policy, highlighting a small literature using the language of complexity directly to describe complex policy-making systems, and a larger literature identifying complexity themes. It then highlights the main problems to be overcome before complexity theory can become truly valuable in politics and policy making.

This article identifies a number of challenges that the social sciences will have to play a broader role in formulating international migration policies. This new role is subject to two major processes: globalization & the universal acceptance of human rights. Both processes affect policy options, albeit from different perspectives. Recent findings confirm that there is no direct link between poverty & South-North migration, despite the fact that many policy recommendations are based on this premise. The article suggests that the contradiction between policy recommendations & research findings is due to the weight of economic theory in migration policy. Yet economics does not take into account the complex nature of social, political, & cultural factors that also influence migrant motivations & migration processes. Recent efforts to formulate multidisciplinary theories should help devise more effective policies. Channels of communication will need to be improved between knowledge producers & policymakers. The article also recommends distinguishing between a conceptual & an instrumental use of knowledge. Adapted from the source document.

The politics of public policy is a vibrant research area increasingly at the forefront of intellectual innovations in the discipline. We argue that political scientists are best positioned to undertake research on the politics of public policy when they possess expertise in particular policy areas. Policy expertise positions scholars to conduct theoretically innovative work and to ensure that empirical research reflects the reality they aim to analyze. It also confers important practical advantages, such as access to a significant number of academic positions and major sources of research funding not otherwise available to political scientists. Perhaps most importantly, scholars with policy expertise are equipped to defend the value of political science degrees and research in the public sphere.

This article examines how Progressive-Era political scientists worked to promote public service training. It gives evidence that the Progressive-Era political science community had a broad view of its mission that included preparing civil servants. Since World War II, tension has permeated relations between mainstream political science and professional public administration programs. Participants in current debates on relations between the two fields can gain from knowing something about the broad interests that engrossed the American Political Science Association at its start.

ABSTRACTThe politics of public policy is a vibrant research area increasingly at the forefront of intellectual innovations in the discipline. We argue that political scientists are best positioned to undertake research on the politics of public policy when they possess expertise in particular policy areas. Policy expertise positions scholars to conduct theoretically innovative work and to ensure that empirical research reflects the reality they aim to analyze. It also confers important practical advantages, such as access to a significant number of academic positions and major sources of research funding not otherwise available to political scientists. Perhaps most importantly, scholars with policy expertise are equipped to defend the value of political science degrees and research in the public sphere.

Public administration writers have placed considerable faith in the power of social science to improve the practice of public administration. This article argues that such faith derives from their vision of the state as a purposive association. However, because we live in what is essentially a civil association rather than a purposive association, there are severe limits on the knowledge that social science can provide for practice. Public administration inquiry, it is concluded, needs to devote more attention to the nature of the civil association in which it operates, particularly in regard to our constitutional system of governance.

This article identifies a number of challenges the social sciences will have to face in order to play a broader role in formulating international migration policies. This new role is subject to two major processes: globalisation and the universal acceptance of human rights. Both processes affect policy options, albeit from different perspectives. Recent research findings have confirmed that there is no direct link between poverty and South‐North migration, despite the fact that many policy recommendations are based on this premise. The article suggests that the contradiction between policy recommendations and research findings is due to the weight of economic theory in migration policy. Yet economics does not take into account the complex nature of social, political and cultural factors that also influence migrants' motivations and migration processes. Recent efforts to formulate multi‐disciplinary theories should, it is suggested, help devise more effective policies. Channels of communication will need to be improved between knowledge‐producers and policy‐makers. The article also recommends distinguishing between a conceptual and an instrumental use of knowledge.