---
title: "Politicization of science"
chunk: 2/5
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politicization_of_science"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:18:14.587410+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

The intelligent design movement associated with the Discovery Institute, attempts to "defeat [the] materialist world view" represented by the theory of evolution in favor of "a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions". The Discovery Institute portrays evolution as a "theory in crisis" with scientists criticizing evolution and that "fairness" and "equal time" requires educating students about "the controversy". A cornerstone of modern scientific biological theory is that all forms of life on Earth are related by common descent with modification.
While criticisms to the theory of evolution have existed throughout time, often certain ideological proponents seek to expand the scope of these disagreements in order to draw doubt onto the entire theory. For example, in the United States there is a legal precedent of those who sought to discredit the teaching of evolution in classrooms by emphasizing so-called flaws in the theory of evolution or disagreements within the scientific community. Others insist that teachers have absolute freedom within their classrooms and cannot be disciplined for teaching non-scientific "alternatives" to evolution. A number of bills require that students be taught to "critically analyze" evolution or to understand "the controversy" when there is no significant controversy within the mainstream scientific community about evolution. As such, the controversy surrounding the teaching of evolution is not primarily a scientific one.
The 2005 ruling in the Dover trial, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, where the claims of intelligent design proponents were considered by a United States federal court concluded that intelligent design is not science, that it "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents", and concluded that the school district's promotion of it therefore violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

=== Tobacco and cancer ===

By the mid-1950s there was a scientific consensus that smoking promotes lung cancer, but the tobacco industry fought the findings, both in the public eye and within the scientific community. Tobacco companies funded think tanks and lobbying groups, started health reassurance campaigns, ran advertisements in medical journals, and researched alternate explanations for lung cancer, such as pollution, asbestos and even pet birds. Denying the case against tobacco was "closed," they called for more research as a tactic to delay regulation. John Horgan, notes a rhetoric tactic that has been used by tobacco companies. It is summarized in a line that appeared in a confidential memo from a tobacco company, in 1969, when they sought to cast doubt on evidence that supports smoking causes cancer. It read, "Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the mind of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy."

=== Eugenics ===

Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler was well known for eugenics programs which attempted to maintain a "pure" German race through a series of programs that ran under the banner of racial hygiene. The Nazis manipulated scientific research in Germany, by forcing some scholars to emigrate, and by allocating funding for research based on ideological rather than scientific merit.
In the early 20th century, eugenics enjoyed substantial international support, from leading politicians and scientists. The First International Congress of Eugenics in 1912 was supported by many prominent persons, including its president Leonard Darwin, the son of Charles Darwin; honorary vice-president Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty and future Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Auguste Forel, famous Swiss pathologist; Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone; among other prominent people.
The level of support for eugenics research by the Nazis prompted an American eugenics advocate to seek an expansion of the American program, with the complaint that "the Germans are beating us at our own game". There was a strong connection between American and Nazi eugenics research. Nazis based their eugenics program on the United States' programs of forced sterilization, especially on the eugenics laws that had been enacted in California.

=== Social justice ===
Some critics argue that science has been politicized by social justice advocates. David Randall, director of research at the politically conservative advocacy group the National Association of Scholars, said that the emphasis on pursuing social justice and political activism "threatens the very definition of science as primarily a search for truth". In October 2021, The New York Times reported a rise in calls for "citational justice" within academic communities, which the article defines as an effort by professors and graduate students "to cite more Black, Latino, Asian and Native American scholars and in some cases refuse to acknowledge in footnotes the research of those who hold distasteful views." Some researchers have defended these efforts against the charge of politicization, arguing that science has always been inherently political.

== Government politicization ==

=== Poland ===
Poland employs a distinctive system for conferring academic titles in which the President of the Republic of Poland officially awards the title of "profesor zwyczajny" (full professor) to candidates recommended by independent academic committees. Although this role is formally intended to be ceremonial and devoid of political influence, in practice it has become a locus for politicization. Under Polish law, the president's decision is not subject to a strict statutory deadline, granting considerable discretionary power that can be—and critics argue is—exploited for political ends. For instance, the promotion of noted genocide researcher Michał Bilewicz was reportedly delayed by President Andrzej Duda, a move that critics interpreted as punitive towards scholars whose work challenges nationalist narratives. In a related development, Prof. Bilewicz later won a court case against President Duda over the delay in his promotion. Other cases have raised similar concerns that the conferral process, rather than being a neutral recognition of scholarly merit, may serve as an indirect instrument of state influence over academia. Consequently, critics contend that such politicization undermines the autonomy of scientific inquiry and academic freedom in Poland, blurring the boundary between scholarly achievement and political favor.

=== Soviet Union ===