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IDEOLOGY AND POLICY RESEARCH: THE CASE OF MURRAY'S LOSING GROUND
Author(s) -
Dolbeare Kenneth M.,
Lidman Russell M.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-1338.1985.tb00306.x
Subject(s) - ideology , blame , argument (complex analysis) , appeal , elite , sociology , liberalism , social darwinism , poverty , law and economics , political science , law , political economy , politics , social psychology , psychology , biochemistry , chemistry
Ideology and policy research are intertwined in many ways; an example is Murray's Losing Ground which uses “science” to justify racial, sexual, and class discrimination. Murray is utterly faithful to the neoconservative version of how liberalism went wrong in the 1960s. He says an intellectual elite shifted the blame for poverty, crime and low achievement to “the system” destroying individual responsibility. But his argument is not supported by evidence. Data are bent tofit foregone conclusions. He argues that more people are becoming dependent on government support, but his method of counting who receives assistance is a fiction. Nevertheless his argument has wide appeal among Americans. Why? His argument touches the self‐interested Social Darwinist in almost all of us.