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100			_aMiller, Jon D.
245			_aAmerican people and science policy: the role of public attitudes in the policy process
260			_aNew York _bOxford _c1983
300			_a143 p.
520			_aThe conclusions of the study are based particularly on four major surveys administered by Jon Miller's team: two of the general public (administered in 1979 and 1981), one of high school and college students (1978), and one of the leadership of the science and technology community (1981). The study estab- lishes the size of the attentive public for science, its growth over time, its social composition, the recruitment and socialization of science attentives in the high school and college years, the areas of agreement and disagreement of the atten- tive public and the science leadership on policy questions, and finally the sig- nificance of these properties of the attentive public for science policy and for democratic politics. Miller's main argument is that the attentive public for science is a substan- tial and growing stratum of the population (20% as of 1981), interested and informed about science, which is mobilizable in support of scientific and tech- nological growth. In a sense it is a “reserve army” for the political support of science, since its high prestige in the last decades has made it possible for research and development to get an increasing share of public resources without much political controversy. But given the declining rate of economic growth in recent years, the leadership of science in its struggles for its share of public resources may have increasing need for this motivated, informed, and politically sophisticated mass of supporters.
650			_aScience and state united states citizen participation
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