Science in Public Affairs 



When every other interest is provided for with 

 calculated forethought and knowledge, it is not 

 possible to leave that well-being which is the 

 supreme interest of government to uncalculated 

 chance and conjecture. The methods that are 

 sufficient for a simpler existence are inadequate 

 to the complexity of modern industrialism and 

 its problems. A scientific scrutiny has become 

 inevitable. When this is recognised, the problem 

 of applying science to government becomes one 

 of organisation. For a despotic government the 

 question is of course an entirely simple one. The 

 despot has no more to do than to choose his 

 scientists and sign their decrees. But the problem 

 of such a country as Great Britain the problem 

 of a government at once scientific and democratic 

 is quite a different affair. 



Especially is this seen to be the case, when we 

 consider that democratic government evidently 

 and increasingly involves a great decentralisation 

 of administrative work. Administration becomes 

 always a greater factor in national life in this 

 country. Legislative reform is, no doubt, a matter 

 of constant demand and frequent occurrence. But 

 the tendency of almost every great social reform 

 is to take effect through an increased use of 

 administrative machinery ; and the necessity for 

 popular supervision of administrative work raises 

 at once the question of an adequate method of 

 popular control. Apart from any wider proposals, 

 which lie beyond the scope of this discussion, it is 

 evident that the only possibility of such control 



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