LIST OF PANELS

Although Harold D. Lasswell is widely recognized as having been the chief advocate for a policy focus in the social sciences, the significance of his ‘policy sciences’ proposal remains controversial.  Are the policy sciences just an arsenal of technocratic decision techniques based in systems analysis and game theory?  Does Lasswell, as often alleged, simply usher us into a ‘brave new world of scientism’?  Or does he, to the contrary, provide the basis for ‘critical policy science’?   What, in any case, do we make of the fact that Lasswell’s famously ‘mystifying intellectual history’ includes a focus on key figures in the emergence of critical inquiry?  Should we, furthermore, take seriously his explicit claim that the policy sciences carry a commitment to democracy?  Lasswell has been portrayed as promoting an ‘elitist’ conception of democracy that merely upholds the status quo of liberal democracy.  Yet, what of notes in his work supporting not only democratic government, but also the democratization of society?  Are there indications of a more participatory approach?  Could Lasswell even be counted as a forerunner of deliberative democracy?  Questioning Lasswell’s policy sciences along such lines, this roundtable will focus particularly on the import of his approach for critical policy studies.  Does he offer no more than a cautionary tale of what is to be avoided?  Or does Lasswell’s approach to policy inquiry contain features that can help to clarify the purpose and agenda of critical policy studies and, perhaps, even contribute to its development?

Chair: Eve Seguin, Université du Québec à  Montréal, Canada.
 
Participants:
 

Rosana Boullosa, Universidade de Brasília, Brazil. ‘The concept of “public” in the policy orientation: a critical look at Dewey's influence on Lasswell.’ 
 
Jennifer Dodge, State University of New York at Albany, USA. ‘Anticipating the future in the context of oppression.’
 
Douglas Torgerson, Trent University, Canada.  ‘“Critical policy science”: method and politics.’
 
Philippe Zittoun, Université de Lyon, France. ‘The two Lasswells.’

No call for papers