Revising the institutionalization of science policies: Historical contexts and competing models

Abstract

It is relatively frequent within the social sciences, particularly the history of science, to recognize, with more or less focus, the role of institutionalization and professionalization processes in the development of science and technology. Differences between various scientific institutions are not yet sufficiently understood, including their profiles and the different historical contexts in which they have been created, reformed and/or recreated, which makes up different models and historical implications as regards the assumptions of national science policies. By studying comparative work in the history of the Portuguese science policy process the main purpose of this article is to understand, compare and differentiate the relevant national experiences related to different national science policies agencies, mainly across Europe and North America, during the twentieth century, but with particular focus on the inter-war period and afterwards.