Funding Science in America: Congress, Universities, and the Politics of the Academic Pork Barrel

Funding Science in America: Congress, Universities, and the Politics of the Academic Pork Barrel. By James D. Savage. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 256 pp. Cloth, $49.95; paper, $19.95. ISBN: cloth 0-521-64315-5, paper 0-521-79461-7.

Reviewed by Marcel C. LaFollette

During fiscal year (FY) 2000, academic earmarking-the practice of awarding money via special legislative provision rather than by merit review-set an all-time record. University pork-barrel appropriations exceeded $1 billion, far outstripping even FY1999's remarkable $797 million.

Funding Science in America probes the origins and dynamics of this practice, combining economic analysis of …