University of California, Washington, D.C. Center -- Summer Quarter 2013
Public Policy 191A (Section 3)
THE POLITICS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6:30-9:30 p.m., Room 318
David Goldston and Patrick Windham
dgoldston@nrdc.org and patwindham@aol.com
Office hours: Thursdays, 5:00–6:15 p.m. (by appointment), Room 339
Course Description
The course will give an overview of the two aspects of U.S. science and technology policy –
policy for science and technology; and science and technology for policy.
“Policy for science and technology” involves what the government does to develop, use and
sometimes regulate science and technology. Governments around the world fund and
otherwise promote science and technology to maintain national defense, improve health,
provide energy and food, and help foster new industries and jobs. In the United States
citizens and elected leaders often disagree about the appropriate role of government in this
area, and they also often worry about the actual and potential side effects of new
technologies. This makes policy for science and technology a complex, important, and often
controversial subject. “Science and technology for policy” involves how science and
technology are used to inform and debate policymaking in fields such as environmental
policy and health policy, and the roles that scientists, engineers, and other experts play in
providing scientific and technical information to the public and to policy-makers. This is
often even more contentious.
Course Requirements
Grades for the course will be based on class participation (20 percent), two two-page
papers (10 percent each), and two five-page papers (30 percent each). There are no
examinations in this course. The short papers will be reactions to the course reading and
will be due at the beginning of the class in which the reading is being discussed. The fivepage papers will be an examination of a current science or technology issue of the student’s
choice using the tools from this course. Instructors will provide full details about the
assignments later in the course. The one textbook that will be used is: Homer A. Neal,
Tobin L. Smith, and Jennifer B. McCormick, Beyond Sputnik: U.S. Science Policy in the 21st
Century (University of Michigan Press, 2008). Please purchase it online or at Kramerbooks,
1517 Connecticut Avenue, NW. Several other readings will be in the course reader,
available at US Printing and Copying, 1725 M Street NW.
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Course Outline and Assigned Readings
Tuesday, June 25 – Introduction to the Politics of Science and Technology Policy
Readings will be handed out and discussed in class.
 President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address (Jan. 17, 1961)
 Drafts of the “High Quality Research Act” (2013)
Thursday, June 27 – Science and Technology in American Political History
 Leo Marx, “Does Improved Technology Mean Progress?” in Albert Teich, Technology
and the Future.
 Vannevar Bush, Science – The Endless Frontier (main report, not appendices)
http://ia600408.us.archive.org/18/items/scienceendlessfr00unit/scienceendlessfr00unit.pdf

National Science Foundation Act of 1950
Tuesday, July 2 – Issues in Technology Policy
 Neal, Smith, and McCormick, Beyond Sputnik, Chapters 1 and 2
 Dorothy Nelkin, “Science, Technology, and Political Conflict: Analyzing the Issues,” in
Dorothy Nelkin, editor, Controversy: Politics of Technical Decisions
 Bill Joy, “Why the Future Does Not Need Us, Wired, April 2000
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy_pr.html
Thursday, July 4 – NO CLASS
Tuesday, July 9 – The Roles of the Scientist in Policy
 Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People, http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/h-ibsen/enemypeople.pdf
Thursday, July 11 (7:15 p.m.) – Science for Policy Case Study: Clean Air Regulations
 U..S. House of Representatives, Committee on Science, The Science Behind the
Environmental Protection Agency’s Proposed Revisions to the National Ambient Air
Quality Standard for Ozone and Particulate Matter, Part I, pp. 1 -121
Tuesday, July 16 – Making Science and Technology Policy: Main Institutions and
Players
 Patrick Windham, “Instructor’s Note: The Organization of Executive Branch and
Congressional S&T Activities”
 Neal, Smith, and McCormick, Beyond Sputnik, Chapters 3, 4, and 5
Thursday, July 18 – R&D Funders and Performers
 Roger G. Noll and Linda R. Cohen, “Economics, Politics, and Government Research and
Development,” Chapter 6 in Kraft and Vig, editors, Technology and Politics
 Neal, Smith, and McCormick, Beyond Sputnik, Chapters 6, 7, and 8
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Tuesday, July 23 – S&T Policies for Energy and for Industrial Competitiveness
 Vicki Norberg-Bohm, “Creating Incentives for Environmentally Enhancing
Technological Change: Lessons From 30 Years of U.S. Energy Policy,” Technological
Forecasting and Social Change, volume 65, October 2000
 National Research Council, Rising Above the Gathering Storm (Executive Summary)
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11463

Robert Atkinson, “Deep Competitiveness,” Issues in Science and Technology, Winter
2007, http://www.issues.org/23.2/atkinson.html
Thursday, July 25 – Science for Policy Case Study: Climate Change
 U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Questions
Surrounding the ‘Hockey Stick’ Temperature Studies: Implications for Climate Change
Assessments, pp. 1 – 124
 National Academy of Sciences, Surface Temperature Reconstruction for the Last 2,000
Years (2006), “Summary.” Available at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11676
Tuesday, July 30 – Evolution
 Memorandum of Decision by Judge Jones in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District,
www.pamd.uscourts.gov/kitzmiller/kitzmiller_342.pdf or
www.bu.edu/lawlibrary/PDFs/research/portals/probonofiles/kitzmiller.pdf
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