For decades, critics of secular progressivism have been skeptical of the many billions Congress and state legislatures annually spend on university research, especially in the social sciences. What leftists like to tout as a valuable investment in better understanding and improving the human condition is increasingly seen by others as a cleverly camouflaged marketing effort to justify bigger and more intrusive bureaucracy.
It has been especially hard to ignore that almost every academic study includes two implications. The first is that government officials are even wiser and more worthy of the public’s trust as a result of the study. The second is that the results of the study require “further investigation.” Thus, studies generally suggest a mutually self-serving relationship that trades generous research subsidies for the apparent scientific endorsement of statist policies.
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