Government and Research: The Evolution of Involvement in Europe and the United States

The first sixty years of the twentieth century marked a dramatic shift in the relationship between research and government. Before 1900, research saw nothing more than marginal involvement from state entities, but the following six decades saw an increased volume of government involvement and engagement in new ways.

In this new book, the role of government in research is broken down into four distinct layers called involvement forms. These designations indicate the degree of government involvement in research activities.

You'll learn about the traditional forms of engagement-basic and specific-that represent two opposite ends of a spectrum of government involvement when it comes to purpose specification. Two additional labels describe the changes that occurred between 1900 and 1960: corporative and large scale. These concepts are exemplified in case studies of Germany, Great Britain, the United States, France, Sweden, and Norway.

The emergence of new types of state involvement in research developed as a result of select trends and dynamics. These factors are discussed in relation to the topics of modernization, internationalization, enrollment, and coordination as they pertain to research and development.

Government and Research is for readers with an interest in research policy, including students of science and technology history, political science, and comparative politics.