Evaluation as a Socio-Political Intervention

Abstract

The logic of evaluation is presented and examined, resulting in the claim that evaluation (of public policies and programs) itself is an intervention in the public sphere. Evaluation accomplishes this primarily via the advancement of selected stakeholder interests and values, represented most evidently in the evaluation’s purpose, audience, and key questions, which in turn, structure the quality criteria upon which judgments of program quality and effectiveness are made. Illustrative examples are offered.