Social Knowledge and Public Policy: Robert K. Merton on governmental commissions of inquiry

Merton in his essay on social knowledge and public policy makes the following observations about the nature and attributes of the governmental commissions of inquiry.

"1. Government commissions of inquiry are themselves a historically evolving social form for discovering or systematically describing selected aspects of a social reality.

2. Commissions are both producers and consumers of social research.

3. The institutionalization of procedures for undertaking research on behalf of commissions engaged in recommending public policy began some time ago and is presumably still in process.

4. The use of that research need not be confined to its utilization by the commissions inaugurating it.

5. As the historic case of Marx emphatically proclaims, the results of authentic social inquiry can be utilized by people whose political commitments differ sharply from those of the commissioners or the investigators" (Merton, 1982, p. 227-228).

Further

"Whatever their historical origins and their manifest and latent functions, commissions of inquiry are -- commissions of inquiry. That is, they are publicly committed to make a search or investigation directed toward uncovering germane information and knowledge; they are, in short, institutionally committed to research. The research may turn out to be sound or specious, wide-ranging or parochial, deeply significant or inconsequential, inspired or pedestrian. But the public commitment being what it is, research there must be. Yet, surprisingly little seems to be systematically known about the ways in which research programs and projects are brought into being by these policy-formulating commissions, how the research is conducted, and most of all, how the results of research relate to the formulation of proposed policy" (Merton, 1982, p. 229).

Reference:

Merton, R. K. (1982). Social Research and the Practicing Professions. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.