Reaffirming the Importance of Strategic Use

Abstract

Focusing exclusively on the substantive use of policy analysis results in a limited assessment of the role of analysis in policymaking, particularly in a congressional setting. This article develops a two-dimensional perspective on use, incorporating a substantive-strategic dimension as well as a concrete-conceptual dimension. The importance of this perspective is demonstrated through an analysis of congressional use of two projects produced by the congressional Office of Technology Assessment, one on coal slurry pipelines and the other on residential energy conservation. Results indicate both the existence of substantive use and the importance of more strategic uses.