◉ PSYCHOHISTORY

Office of Science and Technology Policy

institution
A law meant to put science at the service of the public became a way to shut the public out.
Who they are

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), created by Congress in May 1976 through the National Science and Technology Policy Act.

What they do

The record calls it the legal framework for 'using science to make policy' — a framework it says was used to bypass democratic input in favor of 'expert consensus'.

How it works

The law set up OSTP and gave it a legal basis to shape policy through expert agreement rather than public debate. The record says this same framework later became the legal foundation for crisis-driven policy. A task force was also set up under the National Science and Technology Council, though the record does not establish that this task force had binding authority over agencies. A State Department document from 1997–2001 says OSTP and the State Department, working with other agencies, would build support from other nations and international bodies.

Why it matters

It shows how a law written to improve policy can end up moving decisions away from public input and toward a small group of experts.

The engine's record — word for word
The corpus records: "In May 1976, Congress passed the National Science and Technology Policy Act 30 , creating the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and establishing legal framework for ' using science to make policy ', a framework ultimately used to bypass democratic input in favor of ' expert consensus ' — and one that became the legal foundation for crisis-driven policy decades later." Cross-sourced to 1997-2001.state.gov — documents cited by the corpus and retrieved independently of it.
Follow the trail
Walk this on the live map →
Part of the Psychohistory engine — 2,750 entities, 6,993 documented connections. Open data, built to be proven wrong.