77 



Summary 



Between 1975 and 1985, science policy in the United States in- 

 creasingly stressed the importance of Federal support for basic re- 

 search. Declines in the growth rate for Government R&D expendi- 

 tures characteristic of the previous ten years were replaced by an 

 upswing in Federal science budgets. Throughout this period, com- 

 mitment to the principles of pluralism in the support of science re- 

 mained strong, although President Reagan's Commission on Indus- 

 trial Competitiveness recommended in 1984 that this system be 

 given greater central coordination through the establishment of a 

 Department of Science and Technology. 24 Both the Carter and 

 Reagan Administrations shared the same fundamental rationale 

 for the Federal support of research and development — that being 

 that such expenditures provide significant contributions to the eco- 

 nomic welfare and national security of the country. This, as we 

 have seen, was the same basic rationale promoted in the 1940s by 

 Vannevar Bush. 



Technology (97th Congress, 2nd session. Washington: GPO, 1982); Office of Technology Assess- 

 ment, The Regulatory Environment for Science: A Technical Memorandum (Washington: GPO, 

 1986); Office of Technology Assessment, Demographic Trends and the Scientific and Engineering 

 Work Force: A Technical Memorandum (Washington: GPO, 1985); National Academy of Sciences, 

 Reducing Bureaucratic Accretion in Government and University Procedures for Sponsoring Re- 

 search (Washington: National Academy of Sciences, 1986); National Science Board, University- 

 Industry Research Relationships: Myths, Realities and Potentials (Washington: GPO, 1982); and 

 Dickson, The New Politics of Science. 



24 For the Reagan Administration's interest in establishing a cabinet-level Department of Sci- 

 ence and Technology, see "White House and Science: Idea of Cabinet Department Revived," 

 Chemical & Engineering News, 62 (November 19, 1984), 6-7: "Presidential Commission Seeks De- 

 partment of Science," Science and Government Report, 14 (December 1, 1984), 1-5; William J. 

 Broad, "Science Department in Cabinet Is Urged," New York Times, 11 December 1984; and Mi- 

 chael E. Davey, Christopher T. Hill, and Wendy H. Schacht, Establishing a Department of Sci- 

 ence and Technology; An Analysis of the Proposal of the President 's Commission on Industrial 

 Competitiveness, Report No. 85-122 SPR (Washington: Congressional Research Service, Library 

 of Congress, 1985). 



