R ESEARCH ON PUBLIC POLICIES in the United States has generally taken two directions. The first, and older tradition, may be called normative studies of public policy. These studies attempt to analyze, usually in a critical fashion, a particular public policy (agriculture, labor, education, unemployment, etc.) and most generally also suggest either reforms in the existing policy or a new type of policy altogether. For example, there are numerous studies of our foreign aid program which describe, in detail, how it has failed in one way or another to live up to certain standards. These reports are also accompanied with general or specific recommendations on how the program can be improved. The criteria of evaluation which these critiques of on-going programs employ are usually certain stated goals which the authors feel are, or ought to be, highly valued. Often authors will suggest that if certain steps are taken programs can be developed which will lead to solutions of the problems under examination. The major point of argumentation, however, is generally the extent to which on-going policies deviate from, important values or goals. Studies of this kind have now fallen somewhat into disrepute as being value-laden and lacking in scientific interest. Much of the dissatisfaction revolves around the point that such studies are argumentative and sometimes rhetorical, using data to score policy points rather than scientific ones. Almost anyone can think of values which current policies in almost any field are either slow in satisfying, or not satisfying at all, and hence criticize public policies on that basis. A newer effort in the direction of policy analysis has been the attempt to think futuristically about either the consequences of ongoing policies or what kinds of policies would be appropriate given a world x number of years hence. These studies have taken impetus from governmental interest in social science efforts to talk about the future in such fields as demography, disarmament, nuclear strategy,