Futures studies and the policy sciences

Peter DeLeon

Expert InsightsPublished 1984

This paper details part of an effort to evaluate Sweden's Secretariat for Futures Studies. The author identifies two basic issues regarding futures studies--their legitimacy, and criteria for evaluating them. The author reviews some of the tenets of the policy sciences to determine whether they might help derive a template for justifying and evaluating futures studies. He finds that the policy sciences and futures studies share a problem-oriented contextuality, a multidisciplinary approach, and a concern with human values. Finally, they both have more in common with the methods of the social sciences than with the natural sciences. Time horizons and policy applications distinguish the two fields, however. The author concludes that, drawing upon the intellectual and analytical capital of the policy sciences, futures studies can represent a legitimate and epistemologically sound exercise in public policymaking.

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DeLeon, Peter, Futures studies and the policy sciences. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1984. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P7000.html.
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