Speaking Truth to Power: The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis. By Aaron Wildavsky. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979. Pp. xiv + 431. $13.95.)

1980 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 522-523
Author(s):  
Richard P. Nathan

The professionalization of policy analysis is usefully viewed as a cultural phenomenon that encompasses not only the expert’s relationship to the state and to various groups in society, but also the impact of policy experts on the popular consciousness and the general discourse within which more specialized policy discourses are situated. Viewed from this wider angle, the influence of policy analysts and their specialized knowledge has never been greater in Canada. In tracing the professionalization of policy analysis this chapter is concerned chiefly with how analysts and their craft have become embedded in our culture and governance in the widest sense. In this era of “fake news”, where the ability to ascertain the facts is perhaps more difficult than has ever been the case, speaking truth to power and about power have never been more important.


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