Policy Instruments, Public Deliberation and Evaluation Processes

Abstract

Evaluation can not only serve as a means of measuring or appraising the performance of policy instruments but also to foster consensus building among the different actors involved. This is done through a social learning process that involves discussing the criteria used to evaluate how effective the measures adopted are in terms of the problem or problems a specific policy is intended to address. In this latter sense, evaluation is also a policy instrument, particularly in the case of policies that require a change in human behaviour or where there is little consensus about which variables should be used to measure the effectiveness of the policy adopted.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And God saw everything that He made. “Behold,” God said, “it is very good”.

And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

And on the seventh day God rested from all his work. His archangel came then unto Him asking, “God, how do you know that what you have created is ‘very good’? What are your criteria? On what data have you based your judgement? Aren’t you a little too close to the situation to make a fair and unbiased evaluation?” God thought about these questions all that day and His rest was greatly disturbed. On the eighth day God said: “Lucifer, go to hell”.

Thus was evaluation born in a blaze of glory. (Patton 1986, 1.)