Do the Policy Sciences Exist?

To defend itself as an independent field of academic study, public policy must make a positive claim to provide unique conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions. We argue that such a defense does not require identifying a core (singular) research question or an overarching theoretical gyroscope. Public policy scholars clearly organize the bulk of their scholarship around an identifiable list of questions (plural), and in pursuit of answers to those questions have contributed―not just borrowed—a range of conceptual, theoretical, and methodological advances. The empirical contributions of the field have never really been doubted, even if the field itself has been questioned. We conclude that there is such a thing as a field of public policy, that it is in rude health and continuing to make the contributions one expects of a distinct and flourishing academic discipline.