'Professional' Doctorates

[tairos]

I'm a current international affairs master's student, and have been pondering the possibility of a PhD for the purposes of working in the policy world.  From what I can tell though, even the seemingly professionally-oriented policy doctorates (e.g. in public policy or strategic studies) are still primarily academic in nature.  They seem to weigh academic achievement much more than work experience for the purposes of admission, still revolve around a dissertation, etc.  In other words, they seem more similar to a PhD in political science than a policy master's program.  Does anyone have any insight on this?  

[ExponentialDecay]

Well, a PhD is first and foremost a research degree, so I don't think it's strange that, in order to receive a PhD, in a professional subject or not, you are expected to do some research... Policy positions that require or prefer a PhD typically expect to make extensive use of those skills. 

I wouldn't say that work experience doesn't count for a policy PhD - it does if it is relevant - but in the end, it's a typical interdisciplinary social science PhD that is what you make of it. The main difference is that these programs tend to be more accommodating of you having a job while you are in the program (i.e., as is rare in the states, some of these programs are both reputable and truly part time), and that finding a job in academia with a policy PhD is near-impossible.