Policy evaluation Flashcards
what is policy evaluation?
comparing objectives and outcomes/comparing intended and actual effects of policies
what are the 5 reasons that policy evaluation is important?
support decision
transparency
democratisation
accountability
efficiency
which evaluation methods measure effectivess?
experimental methods
qualitative evaluation
which evaluation methods measure efficiency?
economic evaluation
performance measurement
what do experimental models do?
test effectiveness by exploring causality between output and outcome
what does qualitative evaluation do?
tests effectiveness by exploring how and why policy has had an effect
what is economic evaluation?
tests the efficiency through cost analysis of resources and weighed against outcomes
what is performance measurement?
tests efficiency of effectiveness through assessing use of organisational resources relative to predefined goal through ongoing monitoring
what are the 4 components to evaluation as a political method?
verification
validation
vindication
social choice
what are the key challenges in policy evaluation?
The identification of policy goals.
Appropriate definition and measurement of performance indicators.
Isolation of a policy’s effect from other factors.
Political context.
What is an evidenced based policy in regards to policy learning?
heeding past policies, lessons from other policy areas, borrowing ideas (policy transfer)
what are the functions of evidence in policymaking?
instrumental
legitimising
substantiating
what is a supply barrier of using evidence in evaluation?
research is not timely enough in providing answers to relevant policy questions
what is a demand barrier of using evidence in evaluation?
many political decisions were driven by values rather than outcomes- and that sometimes the ‘evidence-driven’ answer brought significant political risk
what is a major critique to evidence based policy?
evidence is ‘selected information from the available stock [which] is introduced at a specific point in an argument to persuade the mind that a given factual proposition is true or false’
