Modern social science and modern law

There are abundant examples of social science influencing law from the time when the idea of social science appeared. Many early economists were active and successful in their attempts to influence public policy.

In Germany, important economists like Gustav von Schmoller (1838-1917) were major figures in the organization and operation of the Association for Social Policy (Verein fur Sozialpolitik) organized for the express purpose of influencing public opinion. It sponsored and published many studies that were explicitly aimed at changing the law on what were then regarded as social problems. German economic thinking was at the root of many of the legal changes - ranging from state ownership of the railroads to social insur­ance - that were enacted in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

After the revolution in France, history and sociology were but two of the social sciences which also directly influenced the law. To cite just one exam­ple, Franςois Pierre Gillaume Guizot (1787-1874) was a professor, historian and statesman. First, minister of home affairs, then minister of public instruc­tion from 1832 to 1837, he became head of the government from 1841 to 1848. His interpretations of social science directly influenced much French legislation.

In the United States, all of the early leading statesmen based many of their ideas about the institutions they founded on their understanding of history and economics. Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), Alexander Hamilton (1757­1804) and Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) are three who also have a place in the history of economic thought.