Social Experiments and Public Policy

How can we know whether our schooling, social assistance, or development policy truly works? Today, running a social experiment, or randomized controlled trial (RCT), is widely seen as the proper answer. But why have RCTs become so compelling as a way of governing social life? Malte Neuwinger explores this sharply contested subject, tracing the historical, institutional, and political forces that have turned RCTs into such an influential tool of contemporary policymaking.Moving beyond the familiar debate over the advantages and limitations of social experimentation, Neuwinger asks how the success of RCTs can be explained in the first place—and whether their dominance is likely to last. What role did money, radicalism, and ignorance play in the “realpolitik of randomization”? Why did many scientists once regard RCTs with skepticism, and why are they seen as so quintessentially scientific today? By placing social experiments in their broader socio-historical context, the book shows that they are not simply a method for producing knowledge, but a way of reshaping how societies understand social problems and possible solutions.Social Experiments and Public Policy is a vital resource for scholars and students of governance, public administration, and innovation policy. Academic social scientists, as well as practitioners in development policy, social policy, and philanthropy who use RCTs in their work will also find it to be a valuable read.