"Advocacy research" versus "management review": a comparative analysis.

Abstract

The authors compare two policy studies of the federally implemented Community Mental Health Centers program--one by a Ralph Nader study group and one by the U.S. General Accounting Office--in order to develop and illustrate two corresponding concepts or "ideal types" of policy research methodology, termed "advocacy research" and management review". They give special attention to two analytic dimensions: the balance of "extrinsic" to "intrinsic" critisms, and the structural relationship between policy researchers and policymakers.