Reassessing Political Legitimacy and Its Potential Influence in Constraining Technology Transfer Public Policy in the United States of America

Despite significant government intervention, the incidence of technology transfer in the United States of America is still less than desired. There appears to be policy options to address this problem, but policymakers have not pursued them. One conjecture is that notions of what are politically legitimate actions are restraining policymakers from pursuing certain kinds of technology transfer policies. This paper presents the results of an examination of two questions. First, how have the current conceptualizations of political legitimacy potentially contributed to the lack of public policies that directly mitigate circumstances that hinder the transfer of technologies from universities and federal laboratories to the private sector? And second, what alternative conceptualization of political legitimacy can potentially encourage lawmakers to pursue such public policies? The primary conclusions are that the concept of political legitimacy has been reified on a normative basis and does not align with the behaviors of constituents. Moreover, current conceptualizations are potentially restraining policymakers in several ways that curb their willingness to pursue certain kinds of technology transfer policies. The paper presents an alternative conceptualization of political legitimacy that might enable policymakers to pursue a more diverse array of public policies that will more directly address factors that curtail technology transfer.